It probably has something to do with the group being very small. Sure they turn a lot of traffic, but there's only so much you can do with a group of their size on what I imagine is still a limited budget.
If reddit has problems, I suppose the worst that can happen is a cloud of toxic and poorly thought out comments is released on the internet.
So the tradeoffs they've made, in saving some money, are probably sensible.
Actually, that's what happens when reddit is working :)