Steve Huffman was asked about the reason for the redesign and he said that it was necessary since users who visit reddit for the first time are completely lost and one of the reasons for this was the design. They hope the new design will make reddit more approachable for new users.

I think it comes to down to the growth at all costs mindset of being a VC funded company. Besides the point mentioned above, I think the new design allows them to increase their engagement numbers :

- they heavily push users to install the mobile apps to the point that it's annoying

- the new design lends itself better to native ads

- they started autoplaying videos and gifs on mobile for some users

- when I browse from a desktop without logging in, I noticed that threads now have a "related content" suggestions after the first few comments (I don't remember seeing this previously. Correct me if I'm wrong on this)

- they introduced new profile pages which make the site into more of a social network. Users can now follow other users, post to their own timeline etc.

- they started collecting more user data (for ad targeting) and have reset users' tracking preferences at least twice so far. Related links [0] [1]

Hopefully they start taking user feedback more seriously.

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/73259t/reddit_secr...

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/stopadvertising/comments/87d1sq/psa...