This was good for riders.
However there were a few nice but not noteworthy restaurants that got a lot of evening customers who were people waiting for King St to get moving and decided to give up and have dinner or a few drinks.
Think of it along the lines of airport restaurants suffering due to reduced flight delays and reliably fast security clearance.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4390635/king-street-pilot-project...
Or see the city’s YoY report, page 16:
https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/8fb5-TS_Ki...
The restaurants that suffered were belonged to the fellow I mentioned and those that aligned themselves with him. He was already a bit of a notorious blowhard.
What you’re describing is what they claimed would happen, but didn’t because more people were encouraged to spend time there.
Even anecdotally I certainly spend more time there after films than I otherwise did because it’s so much better to move through rather than a total blockade of cars every single day rendering it basically a non-consideration—at least on our part.
We literally had an outspoken opponent of a traffic reduction program (not even totally car-free) build an ice statue that flipped the bird to passers-by in protest. In the end I think he cost himself business because of his attitude.
You're not alone in not understanding. The program (called the King St Pilot Project here in TO) has made taking that street as a transit user and pedestrian far more palatable.