> where /r/bitcoin is moderated, heavily, by core
This is entirely false. No one in the Bitcoin Core development community has anything to do with how subreddits are being moderated. Dismissing their technical contributions due to how unrelated persons are moderating online communities is nonsensical.
> /r/btc has a no-censorship policy.
https://gist.github.com/chris-belcher/c9f4b90bec1b2fbf8caaab...
> This makes the technical differences between the two almost irrelevant, most are picking a side because they don't (or do) believe in censorship.
The censorship claims are artificially manufactured and blown out of proportion. The /r/bitcoin moderators engage in standard moderation and enforcing the community's rules, a job that became even harder due to all the manipulation, shilling, sockpuppet accounts and voting robots that infiltrated the communication channels of the bitcoin community.
https://medium.com/@shesek/observing-forced-narratives-and-m... (an article I recently wrote. see the "Related" part at the end for more details.)
Moderation is an essential part of healthy online communities. It is not censorship.
http://lesswrong.com/lw/c1/wellkept_gardens_die_by_pacifism/
https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2009/09/free-speech-in-onl...