My buddy had almost the same thing happen with a different book when we were in high school. His English teacher wanted to teach it, the school said no, and he ended up reading it on his own out of spite. What he told me years later was that reading it alone made him angry instead of curious. Nobody was there to help him sort through the hard parts, so he just walked away thinking adults were hiding stuff from him. That is the part nobody talks about, the secret just makes kids trust the grownups less. His younger sister got to read the same book in class three years later and had a totally different take on it. Makes you wonder what the ban was even for.

Honestly sounds like yall are overthinking this. One book with a weird structure doesnt prove anything about paper vs screens. Maybe those e-reader folks just didnt vibe with the book lol.