The point of the periodic table is that it supplies important structural information about each object in the set.
Using the shape of the periodic table rather than its philosophy when the stated intent is to teach about appropriate data representation is an immediate wtf for me.
I feel like we saw the absurd version of it over the past decade, where society at large had acted as though highly online reactionaries are quality signals of an underlying current.
It seems as though market share in that model is failing. I predict the pendulum will swing the other way across the board, and loud minorities in in-person forums will be given less credence… for good (by my estimation in this case) and bad.