Reddit continually conflates the Internet with WWW. If they got off their virtual asses and tried to explore USENET they wouldn't be so depressed about their "dead internet theory".
It's perfectly reasonably to consider the Internet as the thing 99.999% of the population uses, and not relatively obscure and technologist-only things like USENET.
Now you need to say the same thing about App stores. Since 99% of the population uses Google or Apple Apps, is it still perfectly reasonable to consider these gateways ontop of the Internet or are they "the Internet"?
So to answer your question, my overall point is that a redditor's experiences are generally doubly enshittified before they actually get to the content. First via their ad tracking and privacy-leaking-as-default mobile device, and second via their small 4" screen and just as horrible reddit app. They dismiss these two transparent enshittifiers as "just part of the dead Internet" when it's clearly not.
It is tragic that so many people are unaware of or uninterested in the fact that they're not allowed/encouraged to run software that Apple and Google haven't given them permission to use.
What USENET? The one my ISP took away from me before I ever got the chance to experience it? The USENET that's today basically just a venue for piracy?
While the Internet certainly is more than the Web, the whole reason people are here on HN and on Reddit is because unlike 20 years years ago USENET is basically a ghosttown (other than the people using it for piracy). Or maybe that's your point? That while the Web isn't what it was, USENET is an example of how things could get even worse?
