Aren't you?

Good question, different materials probably have different triggers that cause them to degrade. I trust anything plastic less and less every day.

I've been finding that the black grippy plastic on oxo "good grips" degenerates into a sticky crumbling mess over time. I hate their products so much.

The pills were part of the fabric, until the fibers got loose and stuck out far enough from the surface to tangle with each other. So they're kinda already not part of the fabric anymore. There are special trimmers you can get to remove them without doing more damage to the intact parts of the fabric. The main body of the fabric meanwhile is felting more against itself, so the pilling effect should reduce over time.

All fabric is losing bits constantly-- that's the lint you pull out of the lint trap in the dryer. At least the natural fibers are biodegradable.

You can shave the pills off.