Has the policy on link-only answers changed?

Question

In the past, people would either downvote or attempt to fix ‘link only’ answers.

How to handle these was even brought up in meta years ago: Should link-only answers be flagged?

Recently, I noticed a moderator has taken to deleting these answers: What is the science of drying/dehydrating meat? Biltong, jerky, etc

Because it was a deletion, other users can’t fix the answer, and I found out that answers deleted by moderators can’t be voted for in deletion by non-moderator users. (So we can then fix it)

Has the policy officially changed?

Answer 1

I'm certainly not aware of any formal policy changes, but on the other hand, link-only answers have always been delete-worthy, it's just that I think we've tended to give the author a chance to fix it before deleting, and I do still prefer that.

For already-deleted answers, you do at least have the option of editing them and flagging for undeletion (non-mods can still edit mod-deleted answers, I believe?). That said, honestly, writing the actual answer is the hard work, not providing the link, and I have zero problem with someone posting an actual answer in their own name based on the link and getting the reputation gains.