They are slowly taking away the platforms of free speech. First they came for the self hosted websites; then they changed the search engine functions; then they came for twitter; now they are at Reddit. Make no mistake this is not just about an IPO. This is about controlling how the public communicates. Discourse is discouraged.
I think it's a combination of both; people want apps to work; reddit wants ads to serve and NSFW content removed prior to IPO; and they want to disenfranchise the user base. It's similar to the twitter fucking stuff; change of moderation; change of API access; and control of what people are saying. In addition /u/spez is pissed that he sold in 2005 and wants his share of internet gold. ;)