This whole situation has been a giant rugpull from under users' feet. Users shouldn't have to worry about Reddit's IPO. They signed on to a platform with expectations that there was some autonomy with administering individual forums. That they could use their third party client. This all makes sense if all you care about is money and ignore what reddit was for the past 15 years.

This isn't about just moderators. There are a lot of people that are moving on simply because of the implication of having to use Reddit's own app. It's not out of spite like you seem to be painting this as, it's because Reddit has historically made terrible software and have relied on the very same people that gives them most of their value to even make "their" content browsable.

And no, spez isn't the only person putting his name next to his arguments - the Apollo developer he defamed also was.