Sadly it seems most users just go where the critical mass is. They don't see to care the people earning money from it are pieces of shit. They just are where everyone else is. Now, what makes people leave a community in mass, I don't know. Human dynamics are strange.
Well, as far as I'm concerned, unless they forgo charging for API access, I'm not visiting Reddit again, apart from checking the save3rdpartyAPps subreddit. Bit ironic that the protest had been organized on Reddit.
Then you're never going back. It's absurd to think that Reddit should just let 3rd Party apps have access to its API for free indefinitely. You wanna argue that the price should be sensible? Fine. You wanna argue that the way Reddit has rolled this out is reprehensible? Fine. But to argue that they HAVE to keep giving it away for free? Forever? That's just a ridiculous thing to expect.
It's actually not that absurd. For a social media site, users are content. Hence the relationship between third party apps and the site is inherently symbiotic. The app provides a better user experience, leading to more users for the site, hence more content.