This “the alternatives are great” gaslighting stuff has got to stop. We’ve all tried it and we’re all still here, for good reason. Reddit sucks but the fediverse sucks even more.
Oh the irony in this comment... The only person being gaslit is yourself.
And secondly - a lot of people don't know that you can now block instances individually and that defederation/blocking is not really that big of a deal anymore.
People on Reddit are simply too addicted to the content. That's the only real reason I can see what could bind someone to the platform. It all boils down to that - content. (And you probably don't need me to repeat the usual "for more content we need more users" lol)
The old reddit is purely a technical thing at this point. I believe in the popular opinion that it's a matter of time before it gets shut down.
I've personally been a user of it on Apollo and Relay and to me it was the way to use it. Rarely have I interacted with the website. So I imagine it's a similar thing with the old mode users.