“90-plus percent of Reddit users are on our platform, contributing, and are monetized either through ads or Reddit Premium. Why would we subsidize this small group? Why would we effectively pay them to use Reddit but not everybody else who also contributes to Reddit?”
If I'm reading this correctly, this is blatantly assuming that he would rather loose those 10% of users who use third-party apps, than letting them use Reddit for free. He even calls it "subsidizing" them. The tricky part for the CEO-wannabe spez is to know how much of those 10% are content creators. Are users who use third-party apps more prone to post or not? Because let's face it, if he's betting on having a thriving social network trying to mimic tiktok, instagram, etc... he's light years behind. Reddit will never be the choice of shitty influencers and people mimicking each others dances. It's just too complicated of a network for such a basic user-base.
OR...he just wants to prep things up to sell and disappear. From everything I read, his Eloncrush is the most worrying part of it all.
These 10% are the power users and likely the biggest contributors to the platform. I'm totally okay with letting these guys come here and start up a new community while reddit tries to make it work with the casuals and lurkers.