I think it's an exemplar of what's wrong with the modern firm.

C-level management seems to be an insular royal court far removed from the actual mechanics of what makes their company run and not familiar with where the hard work is done and what's the value lost in getting rid of it. It's destructively hierarchical and makes things undirected, disjointed and clashing.

Incoherent executions and incredulous decisions abound. The current practices are clearly idiotic.

Maybe exactly because of this. Every social media is battling spam, and Reddit hasn't to such an extent. They don't know the value of what they have

Except it wasn't actually free, that's the entire issue..