Hopefully the users of these subs provide enough backlash for this that it doesn't work out in Reddit's favor. If not, they're just incentivized to keep doing it. Only way to prevent it is if we as users make it less profitable for them to do this than it is to let the protest continue or reverse the API decision.

man, what a traitor this guy is

This makes me want to use Mastodon and Lemmy more.

This sort of thing is why it bothers me when people mention staying and fighting on centralized platforms. You are fighting code, your existence on these places is not tangible and you can be stripped of it without physical force. Online dictatorships are not like offline ones, they can only fall when they run out of money, which happens when they run out of all of you.