i practice maliki fiqh and regularly wear leather socks/shoes for salah. the shafi and hanafi also have some similar practices. it is not something unique to whahhabis. my understanding is the shia also allow permission for socks in the jaffari school.
that said, i think you are right to highlight the context doesn't seem fitting.
YES! 💯 been saying this war is about AI for a year.
And not sure about escape velocity, maybe for some industries. But we did hit a point of no return for sure about this time. Maybe in nov/dec actually.