YES, they are taking it too far and it's getting worse. Luckily, I sell my books wide so even though Amazon is my best selling platform, it's not my only platform. I can't imagine being in KU now. From what I hear hardly anyone in the program is making money but scammers, content mills or authors who can afford to spend thousands on Amazon ads. Yes, some authors are spending THOUSANDS on these ads. It would make your eyes pop to see how much money authors are spending just for visibility on Amazon.
It's a double-edge sword because now it seems like if you aren't running Amazon ads your book isn't seen. Authors are competing with ads which drives the spend for the ads up so many authors spend a lot but don't make much in return. I use maybe one or two Amazon ads and I bid low. I use Bookbub ads for my wide books but Amazon is a mess now.
I feel sorry for newbies because many of them don't have the money to spend on what it takes to "buy" visibility on the Zon these days and they also don't have an audience so it's is going to be extremely tough for new authors to sell on Amazon as time goes on. I see new authors "crying" everyday about how their book is bombing and they can't get eyes on it no matter what they do. Hence, that congested sea we call Amazon.
Amazon has and will always find a way to make money. Now, they'v found a way to do it by charging authors. Yes, I do use ads minimally but I don't like how the money authors make on Amazon now goes right back into Amazon's pockets. I don't spend tons of the ads but for those who do, wow. I can imagine how they feel because many do not even break even.
I've been speculating for years that one day Amazon will charge authors to submit to KDP. I would not be shocked if they did. Who is to stop them? They can do what they want and has proven it unfortunately. Amazon goes after the money like every company but most of their endeavors seem to hurt authors more than help. They don't need us anymore. When they started KDP, they needed authors to boost them to the status they are at now as a bookseller. Now that it's happened, they don't need us.
So for all those who always praised Amazon and thought they were an author's "friend"...yeah.
From now on you are going to have to have some money to be seen. It's the new world. Pay-to-play, baby. Organic visibility is gone. Even trade pubs are buying Amazon ads to get through the crowd. On top of that, I see many trade published authors upset that their pubs won't buy ads on Amazon because they know without them, their books aren't getting seen.
Amazon has made it where you gotta buy ads or suffer.