Some people are dedicated and like working for their community, the work being its own reward. They may be worried what would happen to their community if they leave (and new mods are appointed by the overlords) which is a real concern for many, especially the more niche ones, I think. Recreating those communities elsewhere can be tough (and no, Lemmy / the Fediverse isn't an alternative for everyone yet, not least because of the relatively higher initial investment into understanding the structure). They may feel like there is still is hope, they don't want to abandon ship until the bitter absolute end and I can respect that. Some people may also simply like the attention (we are talking about mods here after all ololol mods ghey).

Some because of the power, others because they love the community so much. In my opinion, if a company doesn't respect or like you don't work for free for them because of some misguided sense of community or duty. Only do it for the powertripping then.

They like the position of power over other users and it's worth more to them than being treated well by the platform.

Some reddit moderators are genuinely selfless and interested only in helping and serving the community of users who rally around the subject matter they are passionate about...and so as long as the majority of the community are on reddit, that is where the moderators will devote their efforts even if it means a more difficult job starting July 1.

This top level post comes across as a passive insult to reddit moderators, and I'm sure some reddit moderators deserve it, but a lot don't.

You are preaching to the choir. Early adopters have been leaving Reddit over the years for all the known reasons. I will be demodding myself from the last two subs by end of the month. And GDPR-nuking my account after data takeout request is through.

Wouldn't it be more effective to simply delete whole subreddits en masse? Not only would that spit in spez's face, but it would drive many to other sites like here. Or am I missing something on account of being a low tech old fart?

Some people, believe it or not, think that being a mod on a subreddit makes them cool and interesting. In reality, it makes them look like a bozo.