Frustratingly they do this while continuing to not invest into their app - they might have an easier time attracting users if their app didn't break half of their site functions.
It's easier to track in the app because of the mobile advertising identifier.
That doesn't seem to be the case any more, as nearly everybody opts out of that on iOS.
Which is where they need an email for authenticated consent for use with cookieless solutions.
There are still some people who use the reddit application and have Android phones.
And tracking/notifications. Which is of course why I don’t install it.
Tracking and driving engagement via notifications are some of the most important reasons why app users can be monetized better than anonymous web users (user sees more ads if they're spending more time, and tracking allows better targeted and thus higher paying ads)
There's another big factor with mobile app users: it's much harder to block ads in a mobile app.
Don't most users already use mobile browsers (e.g. chrome) which don't support extensions and thus ad blockers?
Firefox on iOS supports strict ad blocking. It’s not as good as some of the purpose-built extensions on desktop, but it mostly does the job.