This is so silly but It feels like the fate of the Pro Bowl was sealed several years ago (as you pointed out 
):
My first reaction to anything in the news about Shedeur or Deion is always “rage bait”. People love being angry about them and that’s a great way to drive traffic. But the Pro Bowl needs all the buzz it can get because I can’t remember the last Pro Bowl I cared enough about to even watch.
The big surprise for me is the difference between the ESPN articles about Huntley and Sanders. Even without reading the byline you can tell that recent article came off the wire while the other was written in house. This SI article does a better job of explaining the situation while expressing the same level of frustrated confusion:
Back when I was a bartender, customers only asked for the Pro Bowl if there was absolutely nothing else on. Bull riding, Golf, and Tennis were more frequently requested and that was when I was bartending in Pittsburgh before they switched the format.