They also really, really want you to use the mobile app, which presumably means it does something privacy-violating.
With regard to the layout, the head of the redesign really emphasized that user choice was important, and that they will never deprecate old.reddit (in fact, they still have .compact from their very early days!). In a way, it makes sense. "Hardcore" users will use RES / old.reddit, while casuals will be pushed to new.reddit, which may be a better fit for them.
My takeaway from talking to them was that, even if I don't believe in their product vision (I hate the app and redesign passionately), I do believe in their team to do the right thing. I hope my trust is well placed.
Why would new.reddit be a better fit for "casuals" when it is worse is pretty much every way?
That said, I hate new Reddit with a passion and still use the old design.
Reddit's management is driving the site as a business, which means doing things for the purpose of maximizing revenue according to the perception of what's "successful". Facebook is evil but successful at it, Instagram is (was) successful.
The path they see to making money is to try to become the next XXXX, where XXXX is the "successful" social media site of the month.
Reddit was originally driven by user need and the desire for functionality, and innovation and working with the user community helped it grow. Not so anymore.
Ultimately, someone/something has to pay for the resources such a site uses, and finding a working profit model that can keep businesses like Reddit functioning is not easy.
Reddit is a zombie at this point - there's no solid alternative to it, despite what some people seem to think, so there's nowhere for people to go. Once there's another option, Reddit is going to rather quickly become a ghost town.
One can hope, but if Reddit really is taking their lessons from FB then they'll buy up the nascent competition and strangle the market.
I remember reading a while back that they didn't have a real way to make money.
The redesign seemed to me a lot like a last gasp to snag some ad money, but old.reddit.com has been available for quite a while now so that may not be true.
I do, however, notice that it does tailor the content to you in a way it didn’t before. The “hot” queue used to be the same for everyone viewing the same page. I like to read AskReddit posts, and on my front page I get many AskReddit posts that have very very little activity.
This is great life advice, and true of almost any app.