Earlier quoted context omitted.
Adblock is opt-in. If the browser misbehaves because of an extension, the browser nor website is to be blamed. Chrome cannot decide on a whim that old websites should be broken. It is not how the web moves forward. Take for example Firefox that kept breaking extensions with every update, now they have few compatible extensions.
it's a little reductio ad absurdum but what about defaulting to popup blocking? blink? marquee? It's not the same thing but maybe worth considering when defending web author's intent being ignored.
that's a misbehaviour of the browser, not the developers
The browsers were designed for viewing a single page at time
popup blocking is fixing a browsers misbehaviour, as much as fixing a car that when you hit the brake accelerates