That doesn't really solve it though. You have to continuously try and find the new subs for your niche because they all go to crap.

This is the internet of 2020s. It’s a lot of work to find good quality content. Everyone knows how to take advantage of everyone or every platform. Any new hot platform will be coopted once it gets traction. Recently made the conclusion so many other people realized is that google search is just searching through paid ads or paid seo. It just sucks frankly. DDG better but still painful.

There are no answers at Reddit, and even if there were, the interface would hide them under the fold of the post, and take several seconds to expose. If I stumble on some terms that have been SEO'd by them, and their posts are at the top of my search results, I add "-reddit -site:reddit.com" to my search, and carry on. I wish I could just block reddit from google results, like you could in the old days.

All internet communities will be overrun with new users (eternal September effect), tend toward popular/sensational posts, attract trolls, have people post illegal content, run the risk of bad moderators, be astroturfed or have paid posts, etc etc. It's a living ecosystem, so it'll keep changing.

what temptation is there even? all and popular are the shittiest parts of reddit

r/all/rising is a good way to discover new communities.

Some good memes :)

Then Reddit goes and deletes all those subs en mass.