Quote Originally Posted by Iscah View Post
I can't say I fully understand the current issues myself, but apparently the changes are going to make it more difficult to keep on top of the amount of spam coming in.
r/AskHistorians had a lovely write-up here with a follow-up here. I'm neither a prolific contributor nor reader, so I don't pretend to have experience with Reddit-particular quirks. To summarize what has been presented, however:

1. Effective moderation, especially of larger subreddits, relies on a wide range of tools that rely on the API and are unavailable via Reddit. Identifying posts that violate the rules, automating functionality, and moderating while away from a desktop all would be made far more difficult or impossible with the changes at the current price point. In Reddit's own app, moderators cannot see which posts have been reported by users as requiring moderation, cannot see removed posts by their peers for review (and revert, if required), cannot see what actions are required. Moderation becomes limited to when a moderator happens to be physically sitting at their desk instead of being able to receive automatic notification and pop in whenever and wherever an issue arises.

2. Any user with visual impairments cannot use the Reddit mobile app well or at all. This one is particularly close to home to me due to working with programs for the disabled for some time in college, and it's thus one that sticks out to me. Reddit hasn't cared about accessibility in the last nine years, presumably because they haven't been large enough of a user base to be monetizeable and turn a profit. This is a gap currently filled only by third-party apps, and it is a gap that will be forced open again when those apps are removed. Supposedly, Reddit has promised they will review accessibility features in the future, but...

3. Reddit has regularly made promises of new features to replace much of what is being destroyed, but is closing off free access to the API in advance of these new features. They have been offered compromises such as a phased implementation as replacement Reddit alternatives become available; these compromises have been rejected by Reddit. They've promised new moderator features that have yet to materialize in the last eight years, requested to combat hate speech and disinformation as well as ordinary ToS violations. They've rolled back promises about features implemented as "opt-in" that were later made required. It seems a decade of broken promises has created an air of mistrust that would make compromise difficult even if both sides were amenable.

From what I've seen, it appears that this is a pretty big straw, but it's the last in a larger pile that's been building for some time.