They more just want to see people suffer, “for the lulz.”
I have a family friend who moved to Idaho to be around more like-minded people, as they put it. She thinks everything going on is comedy, and is getting a kick out of watching people lose their stuff over what Fox says isn’t happening. Her and her husband have their heads buried so far up their asses it’s insane. She also conveniently forgets her kids are half Hispanic (their bio dad is Mexican), and then wonders why they tell her to go fuck herself.
I’m pretty sure they’re just going after advertising on the front and data sales/AI on the back end. It’s inherently difficult to monetize an old-school internet forum, especially one like Reddit where the incumbent user base is vehemently opposed to adverts and in strong favor of privacy. I don’t think they’re too big to fail (cough Digg), they’re just popular and people dislike change. But I do think they’re barking up the wrong tree with their userbase.
The current account I have dates to 2015 before they required email, and they’ll get a throwaway before I give them one of my real ones. But even then, whatever, I’ve really only gone back there maybe once a week for the past few years.