Every time I think they can't go lower, they exceed expectations.

Nah, he is just a rich narcissist. My pet theory is that he thinks he can bully his way out without repercussions and that he sees himself as cunning while the whole userbase is a herd of sheep to be tamed into submission.

Same. Now that the CEO revealed the mindset that drives reddit behind the curtains, the problem shifted from a matter of convenience (access from APIs) to a matter of principles:

the corporation has an authoritarian style of problem-solving;

it has no respect for the userbase or the developers, thus it is not transparent,using underhanded tactics to push a narrative and hide their real goals;

it wants to control every aspect of our interactions to make the userbase receptive to aggressive marketing;

it has no qualms to limit access to content that is 100% created by users, not to use unpaid labor (the mods) to maximize its profits;

it sees the userbase and the mods as expendable when they voice an objection on a policy, despite being those they exploit to make their model profitable (reddit is nothing without the moderation and the user-made content)

This type of aggressive capitalism is becoming a poison for the web.
It is going too far, destroying what has made the internet a special place to share information: no limits to exploration, to sharing, to expression. Now they want to create isolated bubbles behind login walls where they can be owners of the info and controllers of the space to sell data, product placements and ads.

Perhaps these new technologies like the fediverse are the answer, the solution to put a brake on this ugly phenomenon.
I hope decentralization will be the beginning of a new "Internet Renaissance", bringing back a bit of the spirit of the 90s.