[stnmtn]

What products would this be in reddits case? I don't see what subreddits that show up on /r/all are secretly advertising.. The better explanation using Occams Razor is that optimizing for engagement metrics means that low-quality, broadly appealing shallow content simply is more popular

[orangepurple]

Low-quality, broadly appealing shallow content also drives away anybody interested in putting in effort

[stnmtn]

Which is a minority and not a demographic that the revenue team particularly cares about, sadly.

Also, anyone interested in putting in effort should unsubscribe from any sub that shows up on /r/all and find smaller communities; that's where the real value proposition of reddit lies.