Headline seems overly editorialized.
Granted, I didn’t read the whole thread, but I didn’t see any indication that Spotify don’t have usage statistics on widgets and I also didn’t see any indication of actual customer loss.
Spotify should allow for 3rd party independent players. It is not possible to make single perfect music app for billions of customers.
I do not like the direction Spotify app is evolving. I understand that they would like to control user experience, promote podcasts, in-house playlists etc but this is not what I like. Multiple competing Spotify players for different user niches would be a better way to go then single app.
I once made a simple counter app, and I actually got some very negative reviews on the Google Play store for NOT having a widget for it. Sent my app ratings in the toilet. Android users _love_ their widgets...
They didn't "remove" the feature, they moved the feature.
Instead of a launcher widget only found on the home/lock screen of supported launchers, they instead have a permanent expandable notification widget which is available from the existing places, plus more (Home and Lock Screens like the old widget, plus usable while other apps have focus).
It contains all the same information and controls but now works in more places. It also allows you to control it/disable it directly from the App Info panel. It is also launcher agnostic. This is mostly a user training/education issue. More information:
https://community.spotify.com/t5/Android/Android-Widget-Remo...
Plus, in my opinion the whole "it is an optional feature, why even remove it!" argument only makes sense when you ignore the maintenance/support required to keep it in. Android Widgets actually require a lot of tinkering to keep working correctly between major versions and across device form-factors.