I can certainly see why cynical people who don't pay a lot of attention to NASA would see it that way. I can't blame them, but I also don't give much credence to their opinions. I have friends at NASA, so I have more than average insight into what really goes on there. It doesn't take much to get a low profile program canned, and this one was begging for it.
I was somewhat amazed, over a long period of years, that JWST somehow managed to hang on and finally get launched. That, of course, was always a very high profile program.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the overruns from James Webb didn’t affect this program, either.
After 30+ years in the aerospace industry, all I can really say about NASA’s funding is that it is capricious.