There was definitely a lot of support for this merger - people see it as ABK's "redemption arc", and there was a lot of excitement around ABK games coming to GamePass / other platforms like Steam because of this.
Ultimately this is how people think: What is in the merger for them? And they don't think macro, but just simple things like "now I can finally get this game on [platform]"
You can have links open in NewPipe by setting it in Android's settings:
Settings -> Apps -> All apps -> NewPipe -> Open by default
And then set things up in there