"Board meeting" was probably the wrong choice of words. I have in my career been a part of the kind of meeting I describe, but they weren't actual board meetings, I suppose.

I do agree that Reddit probably thinks their mobile app experience is better. The reason I don't think they have a good excuse is because their mobile site is a prime example of self-sabotage. If they actually wanted people to use it, they would have had just about any redditor tell them that the experience is crap and that it should be fixed. Instead, it comes off like they're intentionally making the web experience bad(or at least neglecting it) in order to convince people to install the mobile app. The way their little popup that they frequently show at the bottom of the screen presents itself even suggests that the native app is the proper way to view Reddit. It's bollocks because Reddit is completely text and image centric; if the web can't do its fundamental job to display those two things, then may God have mercy on our souls.

Don't get me wrong, because I don't think that those in charge at Reddit are doing this things out of ill intent. A bunch of people with good will can convince each other of bad ideas, especially the further removed they are from the front lines of engineering.