That was an impulsive act (in reaction to people who had been abusing him personally), with no strategy behind it and serving no particular goal. If something like that is done at all, it's not very surprising that it's done in a clumsy way.

Here the allegation is that Reddit is systematically astroturfing itself with the goal of shaping user opinion. But they're choosing to do it in a way that is very easy to detect (the comments are 100% identical, and as a bonus they all come from usernames that are recognisably automatically generated) and apparently completely ineffective (the comments mostly have -1 points, with a maximum of 1). And the only evidence is something that could have been easily done by absolutely anyone.

Why would the CEO even have that ability? Just comes across as unhygienic.

> in a drunken fit of rage.