Facebook is awesome for chatting with friends, organizing events and sometimes even for posting updates about yourself, for those who want to see them. You don't need the news feed for any of that.
Seems like there's a lot of possible explanations, it doesn't seem obvious to me that it's Facebook's fault/
"Our algorithm did it." does not absolve anyone of their responsibility in choosing to use that algorithm.
Something like this happened to me too (though it was about a newborn baby). FB simply decided that some of my contacts are not worth showing up in my feed. Some other instead keep popping up, despite me clicking "Hide post - See fewer posts like this" like mad.
[0] I am aware of appending /?sk=h_chr to the URL. It does not work 100%.
_A company controlling what you can say_
and
_Missing what someone wrote_
then it will not be worthwhile for you to follow this subject.
Here is an example of the unfortunate side effects of manipulation: One month ago a dear friend of mine posted an obit for her mother. Facebook did not include it in my "feed." I only found out because yesterday I thought "hey, I haven't heard from K for a while..." and typed her name in the search box.
When revolutions shall come, facebook may hide them from you.