How does that show AMP is required, and not just that almost every major media site has chosen to serve AMP pages? I legitimately can't find a large media site that doesn't use AMP, so your observation is essentially meaningless. You're looking for a news site that doesn't use AMP (already extremely rare), makes their pages as fast as AMP pages, and is blocked from appearing in the carousel.

It is a response to the claim that "There are plenty of non-AMP both at the top and in the carousel".

News outlets use AMP because they get pushed out of the carousel if they don't. You have the cause/effect backwards.

> News outlets use AMP because they get pushed out of the carousel if they don't. You have the cause/effect backwards.

Looking at my Google News feed, I see articles from The New York Times and NPR listed prominently in the carousel, and yet neither use AMP.

It's possible that the article I was looking at was a non-AMP link. At least, it didn't have the lightning bolt symbol next to it.