This is the best malicious compliance so far, still reddit could 'force' them to remove the approval restriction.
But subreddits like pics doing the john oliver thing are completely missing the point, reddit dont care if they do that, it's still getting thousands of views and upvotes because its 'cool and funny', its such a 'we did it reddit' moment. Just stop using reddit, let the subreddits go to shit with no moderation, make a sticky linking to alternatives.
I think it will have the opposite effect people want. It will drive traffic to reddit to see the funny pics, it wont suddenly stop the masses using reddit, a garbage experience has to occur for that.
It might get a short bump in traffic, but I don't see traffic increasing on the longer term because of this. And it certainly does spread awareness while also reducing advertising value.
But it will get them talking, which is the main point of it. Regular people will wonder why the sub is full of John Oliver, letting them find out about the API changed and everything.
It's also a way to get people to see what is actually happening from a more unbiased source. Since spez did a whole interview circuit, that might be all some people know about the situation.
I still don't know what an API is. But people who know more about it than me have told me in no uncertain terms that spez is scum for it, and I was able to confirm that because he put his whole ass on display in that AMA, and so here I am.
A loose analogy would be to compare it to a restaurant kitchen. The kitchen serves up food for customers dining in (official Reddit app) but also has a takeout window (the API) which anyone can use to get their food without having to go into the restaurant (3rd party apps).