I doubt it's adobe flexing its muscle, afaik, the DOJ is still looking into the Adobe/Figma merger. Currently Figma and Adobe are operating independently.
One under-appreciated effect of the announcement last year has been the attention and resources that have been directed toward Figma's upstart, open-source competitor Penpot. I tried Penpot back in the fall, and while it was impressive for an open-source tool, I definitely didn't see it challenging Figma anytime soon.
Fast-forward nine months, and Penpot has a boatload of new features as well as its own conference coming up in a few days. I tried it again recently, and it had come much further than I expected: not only have they implemented auto-layout (Figma's original killer feature, in my view), but with the added benefit of wrapping auto-layouts. They even announced a new roadmap item of grid auto-layout.
I loaded up a tutorial file and my enthusiasm was dampened a bit seeing how a complex document impacted performance – Penpot still has a long ways to go to match Figma there – but as a viable Figma competitor, I think Penpot might actually have a chance now. It's telling that even as Figma races ahead with this new release, there is one feature (auto-layout wrap) that Penpot got to first.
The funny thing would be if Penpot's rise, spurred by the threat of Adobe dominance, actually results in regulators giving Adobe the green light to complete its acquisition of Figma. Still, if this market becomes a healthy competition like Blender / Maya, everyone will win.
