A better protest would have been for the moderators to all stop moderating. Turn off their automod filters, allow all posts. Show reddit what happens when their volunteer moderators just stop.
I still think this is coming. After the 48hr strike, how many mods are going to turn their sub back to public, look at their mod inbox filled with confused and angry users, and then see some pending non-response from Reddit post-strike, and wonder why they do this?
I agree that taking the subs private for 48 hours is a good first step. And I agree that subs staying private indefinitely is a good next step.
But if neither make headway, just going unmoderated is the logical next step. Yeah, reddit could take over moderating the subreddits. They can also do that if they're set private. But they don't want to. They outsourced that to volunteer moderators so they could get free labor. If they want to run their own moderation, and submit their own content, the reddit corporation can have fun with that.