No, they talked about it, it was brutal, they were overworked for a good while, then when the money came in they went dumb corporate.
There was a while where they said the stress felt like it was worth it then everything fell apart, this was around when pao was in charge and the ama lady got fired.
That sounds about right, it's been coasting on the momentum from past glories since then, and we were protected from the worst of it by third party apps and good mods and communities in smaller subreddits. Both things they're now ripping apart. Curious to check Reddit again in a couple years and witness just how bad it got.