My guess is that they don't need users to generate content anymore because Reddit's generative bots can seed engaging posts and drive the related conversation.
Content consumed/content produced is tending to 0 cause the denominator has grown ridiculously massive.
Whats funny is the goal of most tech companies when the internet came out was to minimize Info Explosions networks began to produce. What tech has instead done is the opposite causing massive info pollution. And naturally things are breaking down.
In an ideal world minimization of Info Overload any network produces should be the primary objective of tech.
I don't think that's true, I think that is uncritically repeating the excuse given by Reddit executives.
Good AI-training actors could have been deterred by a simple terms of service change. Bad actors will simply scrape HTML.
Instead, Reddit basically killed off all external apps using the API for any purpose, and with no real warning.
A much simpler explanation fits better: They're trying to pump certain numbers up before an IPO.