Why do so many Apple developer applications get rejected recently?

There are a lot of reports recently of people whose application to the Apple developer program got rejected. This thread for example (https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/129691?answerId=627057022#627057022) which has 90% of replies in the last few days / weeks.

Most of the people who get rejected seem to be non-US or EU-based. Does anyone at Apple have an idea of what's going on here?

Since signing and notarising your application is a requirement since Catalina, this is a real death blow to the affected people. I've worked on something for several months and can't get it out now because my application got rejected as well.