For a long time now, imgur simply hasn't worked for me unless I whitelist JS for medialab and a bunch of other 3rd-party domains. Even direct image links get hijacked back to the tracking-infested page. Good riddance, imgur, you won't be missed.

Your edit is the most illuminating on this entire thread. We have some notion that websites are static bodies that don't change, and look for outside societal reasons for some unexpected change where it's often the most commonly found cause.

Imgur stopped existing in 2021 and it became part of Medialab. (Medialab also own kik and whisper)