Here is the thing, I don't think they are driving towards a cliff. In olden times, reddit was one of several options for doomscrolling, with Slashdot, Digg, et Al. When Digg shot themselves in the foot, Reddit was ready to take up the slack, so eternal September happened, and Digg essentially withered away.
At that time the combined user base of these sites was probably an order of magnitude less of present day reddit.
I believe that reddit has achieved critical mass, and they can pretty much do any shit they want. They may lose users, but they'll be a drop in the bucket.
The inertia is too large.
Yep. Sounds legit.