> No it is defending against malicious actors from abusing its API.
I do not really understand the concept of "abusing an API". If an API is amenable to a "bad" use, it seems entirely to be the fault of the API designers, not of its users. The designers built an API that enabled an usage that they did not want. That is their fault, how could it be otherwise?
That is exactly what LinkedIn is doing, they are preventing bad actors from calling their API essentially blacklist them. They cant be blacklisted via IP since they are scattered across the internet, so they are banning them productively. Simple and easy.
I do not really understand the concept of "abusing an API". If an API is amenable to a "bad" use, it seems entirely to be the fault of the API designers, not of its users. The designers built an API that enabled an usage that they did not want. That is their fault, how could it be otherwise?