But why would they make the product shittier and not just more expensive? A lot of the complaints have been the model getting lost and going rogue.

Because sometimes you can make more money by reducing costs and making something shittier (especially if you do it covertly), compared to increasing prices.

I suspect more customers are lost a lot faster when you increase prices, compared to enshittifying the product. It's also a lot more directly attributable to an action, and thus easier for an executive to be blamed if they choose the former over the latter.