Ironically when the problems with bots allegedly writing unfavorable opinions came up, bots were quite a rare occurrence. When I look at some of the defaults now, it reads like the simplest AI generated flavor text that is tuned to the ever same topics. Brain dead market research output without any information.

You really notice this if you compare it to more specialized subs. Even if they are very active with thousands of users, the style of communication is different. It isn't trivial to detect bots, but I think some particular subs might be very infested. Another reason to perhaps scrap API access before someone takes a closer look.

This strategy of decline seems to be inevitable. When they distanced themselves from Swartz and did away with their principles to satisfy some other interests, it was the start of some form of decline, even if the official business numbers look different.

There are business numbers that show an increase in usage, but as a user you cannot feel that at all. On the contrary, it feels like it is moving in a different direction. Perhaps they changed their budgeting somehow to boost their revenue... Or some really rich clients bought a massive amount of reddit goodies.