The issue was that the "prank" demonstrated the amount of power the Reddit admins had over the site, and created discussion as to whether it could be abused.

> and created discussion as to whether it could be abused.

But the conversation was kicked off by it being abused. The conclusion is already there.

Of course someone has access to the actual database, no one needed a demonstration to understand that.

It was a prank, a troll on the trollingest people on the platform. That’s all.

I would say by misrepresenting the arguments of your opponents and simplifying them to the point of removing them, it is you who is making the disingenuous argument.