When you initialize Helm it has long added the stable repository. Unless overridden it is set to https://kubernetes-charts.storage.googleapis.com/. Even though Helm is designed to work with numerous distributed repositories this has given the impression or feel of a central repository. The central repository has become more than a handful to manage and scale so it isn't going to work for the next phase of Helm growth.

This is where the Helm Hub comes in. We want to encourage people to host their own charts and share them in a more discoverable place. That is the Helm Hub.

With that in mind, the stable repository has been removed from Helm v3. When you initialize Helm no repository is added by default.