Inspired by: https://twitter.com/Rimmy_Downunder/status/1686188323164028928
Transcription:
A stick figure pondering: "Hm. If only there was a platform for my desktop application"
The stick figure stepping over many native GUIs to pick up Google Chromium.
The stick figure: "Ah! Here we go!"
They removed it in a recent update because they were told to by the FTB team. There's a legacy FTB section for much older packs, but it doesn't have the pack I want to play.
Interesting. Turns out I'm still using version 6.3, which is the version just before they removed the ability to download FTB packs. Thanks for the heads-up, I'm certainly not updating now.
One thing I can confirm is that if you can find a way to install release 6.3, FTB downloads still work perfectly fine.
I mean, worst case scenario, you could always try and use the launcher just to download the mods/install and then cut and paste the Minecraft install over to your launcher of choice. That said, I don't know for certain if that works largely because I've never really played any FTB modpacks, and I've always been EXTREMELY picky with Minecraft launchers for a very similar reason (Curseforge's official app has ads and I don't trust that "Overwolf" thing they also make you install to not be spyware data harvesting).