Relay for Reddit app stays as one of the few remaining third party apps for Reddit and they are forced to go to a subscription model but the cost of such a subscription is related to how many API calls per user are done.
This screenshot was taken from the yet working patched Sync for Reddit app.
It was obvious right from the outset that Reddit’s assertions as to the costs and motivations were not remotely genuine.
There was a comment early on to the effect of “it should only cost about $1 per user per month”. Were that in fact the case, they could easily have added their own payment method to collect said dollar directly from users, allowing API / 3rd-party client access on a per-account basis. No weird limitations, just the experience you were already enjoying for a nominal fee.
The whole principle was from the outset pants-on-head idiotic, and it’s clear the few times I have been to Reddit since that both the quality and quantity of content has noticeably reduced. Who could have predicted that the “freeloading” 3rd-party app users were the ones providing the bulk of the content (y’know, that content that, for all purposes, is Reddit, and they get to sell ads against).