These just sound like standard features of the MP3 spec and are hardly new...
The open Podcast Index is great - that's the one place where the "open podcast industry" is most centralised, on Apple's podcast index
Realizing that spotify was trying to "steal" podcasting in order to challenge youtube was a depressing thought to me. I always hoped that podcasting, as a free medium, would evolve to the point where it can usurp youtube... but not like this.
Luckily, perhaps, I don't think they're succeeding. I was a semi-loyal listener of most of Spotify's now exclusive content. Besides a select JRE episode that peaks my interest, I don't follow any of them currently.
It's not because Spotify's play is dirty. I'm just using different podcast apps, don't love spotify for podcasting and other such trivialities. As this article mentions, this is probably common. I guess a diverse selection of clients still counts for something.
If you're interested in pushing back on this, the Podcasting 2.0 community welcomes you. Check out https://podcastindex.org/ for details.
Podcast 2.0 apps have more metadata, chapters, cover art that can change like a slideshow during an episode, etc.