Notice there is only 1 full headline (from /r/NoStupidQuestions) visible, it doesn’t even show the full post. There are 3 of those “trending” boxes but only 2 of those even fit their headlines because they are like 3 words long, they cut off anything longer including the description
I originally became addicted to Reddit because of how streamlined it was to skim dozens of headlines and pick from lots of content, seems they have decided content is not something they want to provide anymore :/
You wouldn’t have paid. No one would have paid. It’s as simple as that. People are happy to pay with their data and their attention, but not with their money, which is why they forced everyone onto their first-party app where they can mine your data and push notifications to keep you engaged, all while ensuring you’re forced to look at their ads.
Not to mention charging AI companies money to mine the information you’ve contributed to their platform that they were previously bypassing via the API.
Eh, I don’t pay for Tv or have a lot of subscriptions but I actually pay for YouTube premium because there are channels I follow for more than ten years at this point. And because I know that some of this money goes to the creators (not all, I know) I feel like it’s money well spent for content I actually enjoy. So, with all that said: if Reddit would have given me an option to pay a reasonable amount to browse it on an app of my choice I am pretty sure I would have done that, because some of content and communities were also a part of my life for way longer than ten years.
I can kinda see where you are coming from, though. Not enough people would have paid the way I would have done. People like free stuff. I do too.