This is the sub-goal, but not ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to maximize the profit, with accounts created, all the analytics will work out, and they could do all kinds of promotions or targeted ads.
I guess that's the same reason why you are asked to install a mobile app whenever you visit Reddit mobile WEBSITE. It does not attempt to make your life better. At least it's not the ultimate goal of ecosystem.
Woe to the pizza company who thinks "we don't need to care about customer retention, our pizza is just too good."
I have dozens of pizza places to order from, all within delivery distance. Make ordering difficult, and as long as the competition is pretty much as tasty, I'll move on.
Yeah, Reddit's approach to making so difficult to access the mobile on a whim, especially in an ephemeral browser, is a straight up UX dark pattern. I use Reddit less on mobile because of it...
I want to stay in the browser where I have things like ad blockers and can open a bunch of tabs at once and bounce around easily, etc.