[hobbescotch]

I am going to take a different stance here but these platforms do provide HUGE value. Hosting is a massive cost and so is moderating the volunteer moderators. These 3rd party apps were free loading, some getting billions of requests in a single month and acting like victims, while reddit bears the burden of OpEx costs. On a CPM basis reddit API fees are actually quite cheap and fair for 3rd party devs. 3rd party apps can turn a profit with app redesign, but, from their comments seems like something they were not willing to do.

Reddit has just laid off employees and is probably paying 4-5x it was before for financing due to interest rates and has to find new sources of revenue, and quickly, IPO or not. Users are great for building communities but they can just as easily turn into a non-rational mob like is being done here.