There is the users that Reddit have, and the users they want. There is an overlap of those two groups, but Reddit seems completely happy to chuck out a subsection of their users, if that means being able to jam more ads down the throat of the remaining users.
I think what has happened is that Reddit have looked to Imgur, TikTok, Shorts, Instagram and other social media sites and noticed that Reddit wasn't facilitating doom scrolling in the same way. Reddit users are engaged with the site longer, I'd assume, but see fewer ads, because they remain on the same post. Management would very much like to change that. It's sad, because it shows zero engangement with the site and the users, it just an audience. They're taking their existing product at transforming it to just another scroller app, using the existing users as a means to get the ball rolling.
I think what has happened is that Reddit have looked to Imgur, TikTok, Shorts, Instagram and other social media sites and noticed that Reddit wasn't facilitating doom scrolling in the same way. Reddit users are engaged with the site longer, I'd assume, but see fewer ads, because they remain on the same post. Management would very much like to change that. It's sad, because it shows zero engangement with the site and the users, it just an audience. They're taking their existing product at transforming it to just another scroller app, using the existing users as a means to get the ball rolling.