The new reddit is so bad I'm sort of shocked it still exists. I really wonder what goes through people's heads when they build these things that are universally hated.

Contempt.

You generally don't make an ad-supported business if you respect your users as human beings, but the old -> new Reddit redesign is something really special - going through with it, and then sticking to it for so many years now, pretty much requires seeing your users as cattle.

My college professors in economics / business taught me that customers and employees are numbers from which I must extract the maximum amount of value for the minimum amount of input. People are more like cow nipples in capitalism driven societies.

>I really wonder what goes through people's heads when they build these things that are universally hated.

Oh, they aren't universally hated.

Most of reddit users have only seen the "new" interface, so they don't know what they're missing.

And when they find out, they're already conditioned to use the "new" UI, so switching is difficult.

$$$$

The new UI enforces age gating via sign-in (switch to the old UI, and you can get away with "Continue"), which is better for engagement.

The new UI is mobile friendly, which is WAY better for engagement. (Most users are mobile users, even though mobile devices are worse than desktop PCs in every way except convenience.)