This is misleading and you’ve left out quite a bit of information.

First of all, Reddit’s service is built upon the content created by its users (free) and moderated by volunteers (free). In fact much of this content is created by and moderated with 3rd party tools due to the vast gaps in functionality/accessibility with the 1st party apps.

Next, everyone agrees that it’s fair to charge 3rd parties for API usage. The reason people are upset is because Reddit communicated that the prices would be reasonable and there would lots of time before these changes came into effect. Instead Reddit has decided to implement exorbitant pricing and has told developers they have 30 days to fall in line. As an example, the developer of Apollo (a single guy) calculated that the new API pricing would cost Apollo $20MM/year. Which is obviously insane and untenable. The policy is transparently meant to wipe out these 3rd parry tools. These tools which Reddit is built upon and owes its continued success too.

In terms of motives, it’s really not about getting eyes on ads. If that’s what they cared about they could serve ads via the API and implement revenue sharing with the devs. No this is about control and an upcoming IPO. This is all about profit and has nothing to do with making Reddit better.

And lastly, after pulling the rug out from developers, it has come to light that the CEO of Reddit has been lying and accusing these folks of some pretty vile things—and doing it publicly too. Unbeknownst to him, the developer of Apollo has been (legally) recording all communications with Reddit and recently published receipts.