No, they didn’t, they only think they did.
Just today, a package was dropped off at my local post office and the brought it to me the same day. They sorted it right there.
Sorry, you are wrong, I have a very absolute definition of hub and spoke and removing local sorting. If they had really implemented what you say, what happened this very day wouldn’t have been possible.
Meatloaf isn’t wrong. Some clerk simply spotted your package as a local delivery and pulled it out of the mail stream. You’re extrapolating that instance into a local sorting operation that exists solely in your imagination. USPS has had a hub and spoke system using regional sorting facilities for years. It is a highly automated system that sorts mail using computers and optical character readers.