Jeff, you had it right in saying that Matt had a hand in the TRT changes. A lot of this started from a discussion with him a year or two ago. The team decided on these particular things back in May 2017 (if I'm not mistaken). We just never completely followed through.

It goes back even further than that. I'd say the real conversation started here on the WP Tavern forums early in the team's formation. It's taken years to get to this point, but a bit more freedom and less rigidness is what many of us have been asking for from the beginning.
That same discussion has been an ongoing theme for years now.