Sadly for the concept of the Open Internet, plenty of sites either have or would consider blocking most countries besides their own and closely-linked neighbors e.g. US/CA, since they figure nobody in those other countries could be, say, legitimately placing a takeout order in Chicago, or entering an American contest, etc. So it’s all downside (malicious bots, DDOS etc) with no perceived benefit of allowing them. It’s sad, but it’s probably going to become even more common.