Are the CX23s being intentionally deprecated?

I know I'm being a cheapskate, but it's a valid offering and great for beginners and quick experiments, and the price has increased significantly from 4 euro over the last half a year.It feels like an incredibly lucky day when I can find a region with one free.

Did I miss an update or service announcement? Is retiring the machines the virtual servers were running on this an intentional business decision?