The mods who stayed after the API desaster are lost.

That seems a little reductive. I’ve never moderated anything, but I bet if I spent years building up a community I would also find it hard to just walk away.

You don’t have to walk away, you can migrate. This is more an issue of building your house on the king’s land. The mods that stayed should serve as a warning to the rest of us that building a Reddit community means that Reddit owns the community you created, and that as a moderator Reddit owns you.

Anyone who’s ever tried to get a friend group to change chat apps knows this isn’t simple.

I imagine doing it with a few thousand people is even more difficult.