1. Nothing. Which is what makes this seem soooo shady, and both parties refusing to give even a surface exuse.

2. They're not trying to influence policy, but young impressionable Redditors. Even a 1% change in opinion can be huge at key moments, narrative framing is still effective, even things like the semblance of disagreement can be massively persuading.

I've witnessed my own national subreddit turn from a great little corner of the internet to a shill-ridden shithole. It probably only took the coordination of two or three real full-time people, some coordination on mod replacement, and clever software. But it has been remarkably effective.

The same tactics that worked for my little country would probably work as well or better in other subreddits, and there's no real creativity required to pull it off.