Didn't mean to write so much and rant. But the main point of agreement with you is the first paragraph.

You are likely correct on the fact that normie users are pissed off. One of my co-workers (that always reminds me he doesn't use Reddit aside from if he needs to sell or trade PC parts) wouldn't stfu about how it was stupid and "all just about some power-tripping mods" all because HardwareSwap was considering going longer and he was trying to list some parts (due to a different freakout reaction over needing to downsize his PC to have money in savings after a mass purge of some leaders at work). He was mildly okay with it at first because the automods thing being impacted by the new API stuff. All that "okayness" was completely right out the window after that specific thing was adjusted by Reddit.

So while he isn't a normal day to day viewer of the site, I imagine that most of the "I don't pay attention to politics/policies" users (which I think of as the bulk "normie" mainstream users) are not far behind his sentiment. I did ask if he tried other options, like big Discord servers like LTT/GN or other big PC based YT channel fan servers. Or even forums of those channels/sites. He just wanted to removed about the amount of users being so low. Which I also reminded him that r/HardwareSwap was tiny at some point too and there were smaller subs that he could at least try as they would have higher traffic while the big ones were down.

Protests are supposed to make people frustrated and cause normal operations to be messed up. But in the US, we are just taught to hate anyone or groups that dare protest in ways that impact daily functions. We are told that the only "correct" protests are to be in a pre-selected spot out of the way of everyone else. Or maybe a one-off march with speakers just saying how things are wrong and have people cheer and then leave. And reactionaries are supposed to be the ones that everyone supports because they are (like the majority of people/users) "not hear for politics and don't care." They are also the main thing stopping new unions from forming. Which does seem to line up with how much Lenin was correct in speaking about no revolutions are going to win if those folks can't be won over. Which requires being fully ready and willing to be lashed out at, and stand firm in keeping up the effort and care about them no matter what.