I think you are overestimating the vocal minority here.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that most people that even use reddit directly (website, any app, etc), are just lurkers. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of them don’t even have an account, based simply on a few popular subs’ top posts, number of upvotes, number of comments as compared to the number of people here + subscribers.

I would argue that most of the people that actually consume reddit content don’t care about reddit, the app, the layout, etc. They are getting the content regurgitated through whatever forum/social media influencer or site they are browsing.

Before, if a person came across clickbait lists and articles, it almost certainly came from buzzfeed. Now it originates at Reddit.

If you think Reddit is backing down, you are sadly mistaken.

1. Reddit knows EXACTLY how people are consuming reddit. They know whether they are using the API, new/old Reddit, referenced from other social media, how a person interacts, what kind of money that person makes them, etc
2. This was clearly extremely unpopular. And it’s misguided to think they didn’t know how unpopular it would be.
3. Everything from the admins has been completely tone deaf with zero regard for the desires of the vocal users.

To this end I think it’s safe to say that Reddit doesn’t give a shit about what the vocal users say because they know that’s not really the target audience