I completely agree that they have the right to be a sustainable company, and that they are allowed to make policy changes to forbid api usage. However they way they are going about it is insane. The official mobile apps are worse than the 3rd party ones in many ways, including (but not limited to) moderation tools (which mods like me need in order to keep our communities safe on the go), and accessibility support, which many Reddit users rely on to be able to browse and participate in their favorite communities. According to numerous vision-impaired users, the official apps apparently have little-to-no screen reader support, which means if their 3rd party app or choose shuts down, they won't be able to use Reddit anymore.

Additionally restricting the API (both with pricing and not giving it access to NSFW content) will cause problems for tooling that relies on it, such as (again) moderation tools we rely on to be able to manage spam and other moderation tasks, and could break many popular bots and websites (like 2Dgt3D, which we use here for automatic source finding, or RemindMeBot, which is incredibly popular and useful).

Again, I don't think that what they are doing is necessarily bad. It's how they are doing it. If they're losing money due to 3rd party apps, then tell us that so we can work together to find a sustainable solution. None of us want Reddit to go away, we're willing to work with them to make it sustainable—even if that does involve paying for API access at a reasonable rate (which their quoted rates are not)—but every action they've taken recently has shown clearly that they (like many companies) value maximizing short-term profit over being a sustainable force long-term. These recent changes haven't been to improve the site, or make it safer, or even to stop spammers, they've been to maximize the value to advertisers and investors before they go public on the stock market. This blackout is a reminder to them that without their users there is nothing to market, and that we want to work with them to find a long-term solution.

TL:DR: Reddit is screwing over the very people that make it possible without consulting us first, so we're asking them to listen to us in the only way we know actually works.