It's true. I've long been a fan of using Ubuntu on the server because its consistent release and long-term maintenance schedules make planning a lot easier than with Debian, and because the server stuff was relatively stripped down. But the gradual creep of snap into the server is really worrisome. From minor things like a bunch of annoying loop filesystems on a default install, to truly problematic things like how removing snapd led to a broken OS after automatic security upgrades, forcing us to relent and leave snapd installed. And the fact is, as you say, this is a clear pattern for Canonical.