I thought every gold was bought, with points, which were bought with money. So if you see a gilded post, someone paid for that - maybe not the person who awarded it directly if they were gifted points, or received points as part of an award (which cost more points to cover that).

So basically all those awards were a good indicator of how much was being spent on Reddit and in which forums that financial engagement was being valued.

So if some ‘popular’ forums suddenly stop being gilded, then it is a good indicator that the forum has now been abandoned by the most commercially valuable participants. Which looks bad when selling the site.

So Reddit took its ball back, so noone can tell where the money is but them.