Disenchanted mods Ars spoke with want change, not more communication.
This article covers mostly the recent events, where Reddit tries to gaslight the mods into a "we need to talk". As well as r/place opening.
I'm posting this here as it documents that the media already took notice of the hostility towards Reddit and Reddit Inc., including in r/place, even if the admins are trying to control the damage in it by screwing with the message.
Odds are that Reddit itself won't release data showing a drop in monthly active users or the likes (and even if it did, it would make the numbers up - that's the sort of company that it is), so no solid data.
Without moderation, bot and troll posts/comments can increase. The musk seems to think that bots are fine now, so soez may think that investors and advertisers think the same.