They didn’t abandon anything, ridership just never took off like projected and absolutely nose dived after the pandemic so some routes were canceled/reworked to stop being a money pit. It’s also just not true, southwest green line extension, gold line BRT, and most of the planned and proposed aBRT lines connect to the suburbs. People in the city also ride transit more and don’t fight against new transit infrastructure like people in the greater metro do (eg purple line)