So they should have... done nothing and given in?

Given in to what? The same dynamic that the majority of social media companies have imposed on their users?

One thing to remember is TPA users (of which I was one) were 3% of the website. 3%. Not a very large figure.

In this capitalistic environment, the dynamic is built off of the most a-moral "fuck you, we can get away with it" approach to business that operates within legal bounds that ultimately allow for a corporation to come out on top. Maybe they break a law, have to pay fines, whatever; as long as they can still profit and make investors/shareholders happy, they're probably going to get away with it.

Yes, it's fucked up. 9/10 times, it doesn't matter what the media says and it doesn't matter what the users say.

It sucks, but like Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Google, Apple, etc. all of which have screwed their users over on multiple occasions, they're still in business, chugging along, people are still using their services.

The alternative choice is Stockholm Syndrome.

By that logic, what's the difference if, after all of this, still nothing changes and you still use their service?

We have Lemmy, kbin, Mastodon, etc. They're a great alternative.

Yes, the communities aren't as fleshed out, over time it will get better.

Reddit is thankfully more optional than a lot of other services.

You can stop using Reddit and go about your day to day obligations.

Services like Amazon and Google are a lot harder to give up.

I wonder what we could do to prevent things like this from happening in the future?

Maybe looking more into the political frameworks that exist, laws, and thinking realistically about what changes can be made in the near future, while also trying to understand the challenges that we would be faced against.