the thing you're missing here is that some people have strong emotional attachments to their subreddit communities, to the point of considering it to be part of their identity. I was like this, once, many years ago, and while I can't quite understand why anyone would've stayed on an obviously-sinking ship this long, I can see where they're coming from.

the thing that should've clued you into this is how emotionally-charged and defensive the language used by these people is (let alone the desire to stage a virtual "protest"…)—once you see this pattern, it's easy to identify going forward.