Betteridge's law of headlines seems to apply. It's a mistake to assume that public policies, such as lockdowns, are the primary thing that changes human behavior, when mobility data has shown similar patterns in different places regardless of public policy. Natural social distancing, due to fear, by itself will change the replication number, especially since covid spread seems to be driven primarily by superspreading events among the most risky activities.

I'm glad people are researching all the possibilities, but spreading minor hypotheses like this around social media brings out the worst of armchair epidemiology.