Exactly - and this is during the time where Macs have become commonplace in the corporate world and Linux desktops, while still rare, are definitely a thing.
It took ages for the Mac S4B client to support recording meetings, our IT answer to this was 'just have someone on Windows record the call'. No one in our group of 38 people runs Windows (36 Mac and 2 Linux)...
We didn't finish moving off WebEx (kept it for meetings > 25) and are now moving to Zoom for conferencing. We're still S4B for phones (or more commonly using our cell phones) and using Slack for IM.
In my case I have >100 Skype consumer contacts and used to use it a lot, business communications has become split amongst all the above while personal stuff has moved to WhatsApp. What to destroy the value in what you purchased MS.

No it's widely open as anyone can apply for a Global Entry card and pay $100 for the background check. If you're not a GE user then yes right now it's elite frequent fliers only, but that was partly by design - folks that fly frequently will both gain the most and be the most frequent to not be extra traffic in the regular lines.
The thing trusted traveler users are complaining about is that there's a random element to it - you can be sent to the regular security and still have to take your shoes off and go through the x-ray etc. So you can't count on saving that 10 minutes every time. I'm a Global Entry user, which has been great returning from abroad, but have never had the nod for the expedited screening line yet (0 for 4), and wouldn't want to time things close enough for ten minutes to make a difference anyhow. When I finally do get to go that way it's just a few more minutes in the lounge I guess.

It has to be one of the first things because they want to use it to weed out the test memorizing people paid to take the lab by the companies that then sell lab cheat sheets/ non-honest classes. It's only another hoop for those people to jump through but it may make a dent for a time.

In theory they can't lay off a ton of people in the US without pushing the H1B's out the door first - but it's unlikely they'll want to lose a bunch of their most cost effective workers. Be interesting to see what happens, they could have layoffs without layoffs (say it's all performance based), or the US could escape most of the cuts while the rest of the world gets layoffs. Suspect we'll see soon.

Not to mention 10 gig CX4 - which uses the same copper cables as Infiniband, and works for up to 15M - enough for many situations. I've used it extensively for server to top of rack switch, then fiber from the top of rack switch to a central pair of switches. 15M is enough for interlinking racks too provided the environment's not huge.