Nah. They were easy to kill because those in power wanted to kill them. The same excuses would have worked on plenty of other things that weren't killed, because those in power were happy for them to survive.

Like what.

Youtube had an even higher proportion of piracy than Bittorrent or Napster at the relevant time, assuming that's what the ancestor post was getting at.

Napster was easy to kill. Bittorrent is still alive.