Some subs held polls, and in every one that I saw, the strike was quite broadly popular. I think characterizing this as a few power mods throwing their toys out of the pram is unfair.
These polls have an insane selection bias though. The ones who feel strongly for the issue will be the ones commenting and voting.
It's why stickies/sidebars/etc. rarely work because most of the users simply don't care enough to view them.
Sure, but isn't it in the other direction? The users are most affected by the change are those using third-party apps, but you can't vote in polls in third-party apps.
Like any activism that actually accomplishes anything, it must be sustained and involve real sacrifice to work. This is just "raising awareness," which I guess it has done, but it's easy enough for Reddit to just batten down the hatches and wait for it to blow over, which it will.
It's no different than when you hear about A march planned for this or that cause.
I was also surprised to see yesterday that this same large sub I made them in was blacked out. Virtue-signalling? Throwing a bone to volunteer co-mods in the sub? Against the API changes? Who knows. Big mess now. Tech people don't like change, but when they get mad, wheels start turning.