But it has generated enough bad PR and user bleeding to significantly push competitors, which eventually will financially hurt Reddit - or possibly even kill it.

An old-school investor would be fuming right now, but VCs only care about IPOs and they probably blessed this strategy already.

"Old school investors" haven't mattered since the Dotcom boom showed you can just make money by making up a narrative, selling, and walking away.

That's been the economy in the US for two decades now.

It's a large and protracted public backlash and another example of the CEO being incompetent and dishonest right before an IPO.

It would definitely impact my view of the company as an investor.