The bottom of the post mentioned that sales have increased by 40% with the new design. It will probably take some time to know if that sticks, but it seems like it works from that point of view, even if it was maybe overpriced.
But it's always medically necessary, because weight changes are a leading indicator of many issues, and the long-term trend is needed to see these. If people feel that they don't understand why it's necessary, maybe better communication and education is needed, but I don't think these cards help that.
The furlough system transferred a large amount of money to households, because people had substantially reduced expenses (due to not having to commute, and service-based industries being closed, for example) but only slightly reduced income.
This is generally true in most countries: although the exact mechanism was different, people ended up with more discretionary income and fewer services to spend it on, and so demanded more goods.
They're probably less attainable specifically around San Fransisco and Silicon Valley than in most of Western Europe though, even on a SWE salary. It's definitely true in cheaper areas and states though.
I feel like fiasco might be overstating it a little, but basically atom is incredibly slow and this is probably the main reason that it never overtook Sublime and friends in the same way the VS Code did.