I dug up filament rolls from almost ten years ago at work. Those were on paper as well, so definitely nothing new. It's probably just becoming more common. I'm all for that, as it doesn't really have any obvious downside to storing filament on a plastic spool and it just feels much less wasteful to me.

I usually get my filament without any spool and put it on Dasfilament's little masterspool. That's even less wasteful and also cheaper.

The sad part is that all the Musk evangelists (and there are a lot of them) will happily pay for a 'verified' account if they happen to exceed the limit.