The upcoming API change seems to primary affect three use cases:
1. Moderators used many tools (including bots) which relied on the API to improve their moderation abilities. This indirectly impacts all users to some degree.
2. Users with disabilities often used third party apps to improve the site's accessibility. This significantly impacts a small portion of users with disabilities.
3. Most third party app users had concerns about the UX of the official Reddit app and mobile site - or at least wanted to get rid of ads. This is probably the least use case in terms of "importance", but directly impacts the largest portion of users.
I'm part of that third group. For me, the sky is definitely not falling. But the degraded usability of the mobile site creates enough friction that I will probably reduce my Reddit usage quite significantly. Frankly, Reddit is probably doing me a favor by encouraging me to use their site less.
1. Moderators used many tools (including bots) which relied on the API to improve their moderation abilities. This indirectly impacts all users to some degree.
2. Users with disabilities often used third party apps to improve the site's accessibility. This significantly impacts a small portion of users with disabilities.
3. Most third party app users had concerns about the UX of the official Reddit app and mobile site - or at least wanted to get rid of ads. This is probably the least use case in terms of "importance", but directly impacts the largest portion of users.
I'm part of that third group. For me, the sky is definitely not falling. But the degraded usability of the mobile site creates enough friction that I will probably reduce my Reddit usage quite significantly. Frankly, Reddit is probably doing me a favor by encouraging me to use their site less.