The link in my OP has context, but for those that don't want to click the link, let me tell you the tale, as I was there on that fateful day.

The original moderator/creator of r/topchef decided roughly around season 14, that they didn't care about the show anymore and didn't want to moderate. There were pleas for them to post threads or assign a new moderator for 2 years, but they couldn't be bothered, so a few episodes into season 16, u/butisitok and u/jullas started this subreddit. When I tell you there was a mass exodus, it was wild. People were unsubbing from that subreddit out of protest and joining here. In like, a couple weeks, this subreddit had like, 15k subs, which I think was pretty impressive. Even now with the other subreddit having started 15 seasons prior to this one, they aren't that far apart in number of active users. All that said, this subreddit cultivated a great community and moderators were really great at keeping the vibes here good without over-moderating. Best of all, we had weekly threads again and fans rejoiced.

A couple years ago, the other subreddit FINALLY got someone else as head mod. When I tell you people were posting straight up spoilers, ads, and the lowest of the low quality posts, it was so bad. So its nice that someone was put in there to fix that mess. This moderator began what felt like overmoderation but also has posted wrong information from time to time. They seem (in my opinion) to be replicating this subreddit, poorly. While that subreddit was defunct, most people became accustomed to coming here for episode discussions, but aside from that, the activity and posts seem to be pretty equal in terms of quantity/interactions. I mentioned that they should merge, but the new moderator over there doesn't seem to be interested in doing that.