Asking from a place of sincere ignorance: TFA says the code was obfuscated from the beginning, and that they deliberately kept it obfuscated all these years, and acknowleded the huge community that built mods for Minecraft in spite of it. But what TFA doesn't say:

Why did they keep it obfuscated for so long even after it became readily apparent that almost everyone buys Minecraft to (eventually) play the mods?

Why did they keep it obfuscated even though they acknowledged it didn't really stop modders (or anyone else) from understanding the program?

What occurred recently that caused them to change their mind?