Sure, if that's how a really popular subreddit pays it's moderators, it's not unreasonable. We just know that isn't what's going on here.

In addition, it would be unreasonable to expect users of a free service to suddenly start paying for it without an extremely huge value boost which there's been no mention of. If anything engagement will certainly go down, further reducing the value.

If they grandfather existing subscribers in it might work for a few months or years, and what does the current Reddit leadership care if that community survives longer than they stay at the company. They also might make a few sales with paywalled celebrity IAmA threads. In any case I will watch from the sidelines and enjoy the spectacle 🍿.

If Reddit were run by competent people, I'd think that paywalled subs might be a good idea. I imagine that there are countless scenarios where people have really useful info to share, but at the same time, said info can't be spread too widely, and a paywall is one way of making sure that only people who truly care about said info can take advantage of it.

Enshitification is inevitable

The obvious reaction to anything typically free getting paywalled is vehemence, of course - and that's my thought given Reddit's track record.

Still, if it weren't them, I'm thinking about how this could be done in a classy way. Most people are not willing to engage on topics like politics because there will always be an unending army of trolls arguing in bad faith about them or needlessly engaging in flame wars. If there's some form of friction behind entry, that CAN at least get people to think twice about insulting each other.

Price tags as a form of friction are problematic, of course, in that they "only allow access to the rich". As such, I'd also be open to other ways of making it "difficult" to enter in a way that people could still do with no money. The silliest idea that comes to mind is that people must mail a physical postcard requesting entry (which could then loop back to price tags, since that uses a stamp)