You seem... Bitter.
I don't where is the issue with developers trying to make their product a bit prettier. If overall it draws more attention to it, be it through reddit or anything else, I see that as a win. But nobody forces you to use gaps, and nobody forces you to stop "selling shovels to developers", whatever that is for an occupation. Hope you keep winning big money, and hope i3[-gaps] developers keep doing what they love.
I wager to say that the vast majority of people using i3-gaps have never posted a screenshot of their desktop on reddit. The real use case is "some people like it". The reddit connection is merely evidence of people liking it.
> To each to their own then, whilst I continue to sell shovels to developers and turn over another ten to twenty thousand dollars a month for only that.