They already have 'come out fine' from the whole fiasco. The majority of users already used new reddit and the official app because they haven't actually used old reddit or the third party apps that were available to begin with, and with few exceptions pretty much every subreddit that went dark was already back and fully open a week or so after the blackout.

Stripping API access was just a giant 'fuck you' and experience downgrade to the small group of savvy users who won't ever use new reddit no matter what roadblocks are put in their way.