I'm not saying you are wrong. But the point you are missing, in my opinion, is that the people using the API and third party apps are the power users. It's simple, you start using a site/tool/game so much, you learn the addon/plugins/whatever for it and start using it, tale as old as computing.

But in three decades, I don't know of any web platform that started a fight against its power users and ended up in a better position as a company afterward. Winning the battle ? Sure. But a better position ? Nope.

It feels like either reddit is massively screwing up, or they don't care as long as they can fake it until the IPO.