Reddit died imo when they limited API calls for app developers who made incredible 3rd party apps for the platform. Maybe theyve since fixed it, I wouldnt know since I felt cheated having supported baconreader and boost for their hard work in making the reddit exerience feel so premium. I tried the official reddit app and It was buggy garbage at the time. So IMO they pushed away a good chunk of their userbase even before the whole politicapocolypse, bann waves, community removals, etc.
While lemmy is not a perfect replacement in terms of numbers. I feel that every upvote and comment has more meaning here. People here are generally more productive and insightful. It makes me wonder how much bot traffic reddit had prior to the changes. Selfishly I kind of hope lemmy stays where it is in terms of popularity. You all seem generally really cool and It would be hard to find the real ones In the sea of reddit-esque nonsense.