There's something that feels really off for me here.

Reddit Inc. could've handled the powermods problem years ago; and if did, the userbase would actually support its decision. Yet it decided to do it alongside the API changes, the one timing that would make the userbase side with the powermods. Why?

Note that, if Reddit will pull out the "I am the Senate!" card, there wouldn't be a need to wait for a protest to get rid of the powermods.

Even the API changes. They could've been implemented gradually, over time, playing along with the third party app devs, and then rising the prices until they become unreasonable, killing them as boiled frogs. But instead they decided "we're going to lie, and we're going to make our lie obvious". Why?

The IPO itself is being planned for years. It is simply not news. If all of that is somehow preparing for the IPO, why is it being rushed now? And in a way that it makes the business look less profitable instead of more - anyone can see that Reddit won't last long, and anyone buying Reddit shares will be burning money.

And we can't really claim that it's just Steve Huffman being a moron. He is, but a moron not backed by the business would have his moron butt kicked out.

It's almost like something happened in April or May that made them rush this all. But what would it be?

Or perhaps they're using Huffman as the piranha cow, to implement unpopular changes? And then they'd force him to step down, put another CEO in his place, and say "now everything is better", while not reverting the unpopular changes. But this kind of trick doesn't work twice, they already did it with Pao.

Alternatively, it could be a sign of fracture and struggle within Reddit Inc.. What would it be?

TL;DR: we're missing critical pieces of information here.