Where else do you think the wave of reddit users will crash? Slashdot? Some federated assemblage like Mastodon or Lemmy? An indie clone trying to be to reddit what reddit was to digg? I'm guessing all of the above.
If the collapse of sites like reddit and twitter are what is needed for a return to smaller user-operated and user-owned sites to flourish, then so be it. I won't miss the memes.
This viewpoint is confusing to me. Conceptually, it's no different than email, and we all get by just fine on it