Indeed. As much as the changes that have been made and will be made to Reddit over the years are appalling, it's not the fault of the workers in the trenches. They get their directions from on high.
Afaik they are planning on postponing the api changed until they release "better mod tools" on the official app. Though when it comes to the mod tools promise it pretty much means nothing coming from reddit.
Aaand yet another good reason to switch over to the fediverse / lemmy. Is reddit on a greed run or something?
IPO, API for 3rdparty-apps costs millions of $ a year, now laying off 5% of their workforce?
They really do want to tell twitter to "hold my beer", or what's the plan here? Driving away those users who generate acceptable content leaving only right wing, incel and redpill - as seen on twitter?
Do they even realize that without user-generated (!) content and readers interested in said content and the community behind it, reddit will be worth jack? Can't replace those with AI, can you? I just don't get it.
My guess is the venture capitalists are done funding Reddit, and the owners are looking to quickly IPO, cash out, and skedaddle before the company collapses. Then some right-wing political organization with deep pockets will take over what's left of Reddit and use it as a mouthpiece.