I don't think of Reddit as a single entity, but as a platform for communities(subreddits). The differences between subreddit communities are vast, ranging from 100% toxic to 100% positive.
That's not a good software recipe for a community to become empowered or build their own space at all.
Keywords: become empowered or build their own space
The argument was not "that's not a good software recipe to cause high traffic."
This leads to conflict when one person feels their identity as a "redditor" is under attack by the success of a sub that is diametrically opposed to their political or religious perspective, which leads to invasions, trolling, doxxing, harassment, and lots of other types of nastiness.