I would have agreed with you based on the comment/post metrics, but on a personal level I've noticed that a lot of subs are the walking dead. Places like Not The Onion which have always had (too many tbh) submissions and reposts are suddenly basically dead.

I'm starting to suspect that whole comments, votes and views are driven by many people, it's actually a fairly small cadre who gather and post conte nt for everyone else to view, comment and vote on... and a lot of that seems to have stopped.

The impression I get is that Reddit is walking wounded at the very least, and that while the protest didn't accomplish much, it was in fact a small outcropping of a deeper issue. The blackout was the iceberg above the water, people just saying "screw it, I'm done" is the other 90% below the waterline.