> There was an older Safari content blocker API that did work with the in-app Safari views, but it seems like apps are being updated to stop using it.
Which apps are being updated to stop using it?
The difference is simply that the Safari content blocker API is Apple-specific, so it can be used only on iOS and macOS, whereas uBlock Origin Lite uses the cross-platform DeclarativeNetRequest API, because uBlock Origin Lite is itself cross-platform.
Adblock Plus did so on iOS in version 3.0.0. I haven’t used ABP on other platforms in years but for awhile it was only of the few decent free options I knew of on Safari.
Ah yes, I see in the release notes, "Rebuilt with WebExtension technology for improved ad blocking performance".
I'm not sure why they did that or whether it's actually improved, but the Apple-specific content blocker API is certainly not deprecated or anything like that.
The biggest difference is that the Safari content blocker API is native, in other words, Swift or Objective-C, whereas DeclarativeNetRequest (invented by Google) is a JavaScript API.
In-app views can't really have DNR unless they also have full browser extensions too.