It sounds to me like you weren’t the only person the company was screwing with. Once everybody started comparing notes, that company was dead in the water.

Hit the nail on the head. Elon and spez don’t need to keep anywhere close to all their users for this to be a success. From a business perspective, they could lose a quarter of their users and still come out stronger if it means they’ve monetized the rest. Then add in the additional bonus of getting rid of all your ideological, principled troublemakers, leaving you with a platform full of high quality, addicted users that are easy to take advantage of. I don’t like it, but it really is a sensible strategy from a monetization perspective.

The people you’re (justifiably) worried about aren’t leaving Reddit because of the blackouts. The Reddit experience and content haven’t disappeared- all you have to do is switch to subs that didn’t go dark and post/consume content there instead. Eventually the protesting subs will be reopened under more subservient mods and everything will go back to “normal”.

People (like me) who are exploring entirely new communities right now are the ideologically motivated ones who don’t like what Reddit leadership is doing and want to find a new place without that kind of toxicity. Based on my very limited experience so far, that seems like the kind of person who would fit in here.