I almost left, too. There is no way on God's green Earth that I would share my bank login and password with anyone.
I called AirBnB customer support, and after a bit of the usual well-this-is-how-we-do-it-now, finally the support person told me Plaid is not triggered if the customer uses PayPal. I opened a PayPal account with the very same cr card I formerly used to book, and found that this works to bypass Plaid at AirBnB.
In the mean time, I will be keeping my eye on other booking agencies, as I'm now distrustful of AirBnB decision making,