peef ಠ_ಠ

So while the masses might still show up to reddit, it’s entirely possible that the quality of the content will take a nosedive anyway.

This. This is highly likely and if this happens, Reddit will be soon reduced to something like Quora. Still will be Google’s favourite, but won’t have the quality content and/or the community it needs to become what it once was.

IMO lurkers that just browse Reddit just for getting answers to something they were searching on Google will obviously continue using the app. For them this won’t matter, and they constitute the majority of the Reddit user-base.

I guess most of the Third Party App users are somewhat tech savvy and understand that their official app is a total piece of shit. But as you said, Reddit is okay with losing these somewhat small amount of users.