Reusable pods do exist, and they're not even an inconvenience to use: you just pour some grounds in and stick it in the machine. It's unfortunate that no one seems to bother with them (and that this article doesn't mention them as an alternative.)

It first showed up on amazon.com for me yesterday. I found an article that mentioned it popping up on there from like a month ago, so they might be doing a slow roll-out or something.

It's basically just an AI chat window that pops up on all of the product pages. I thought it was pretty obnoxious.

I blocked it with uBlock Origin, using the element picker thing. Seems to be working well enough so far.

This was absolutely heartbreaking. I think I made it about 20 or 30 min in before I broke down and couldn't continue. I've never attempted to go back and finish it. I just can't.

I live in the middle of the Mojave Desert, so I think it would depend on the time of year. There would be too many people fighting over what little water we have, and if it was in the middle of the summer, I don't know that I would make it very long.