I think /r/science is misunderstood. The moderators had quite a clear vision on the kind of discussion they wanted and the kind they did not. This caused some friction every time a post reached /r/all but I don’t see that as a bad thing.
If anything that’s an ideal situation. People encounter a new community they’re interested in, break some rules in ignorance, the mods interfere and the violations are rolled back, the new users then either follow the rules or leave.
Not sure how they’re doing with the API changes, pretty sure they had some automation going. Don’t think they’re compatible with reddit’s new view on making communities as interchangeable as possible to stop friction from interfering with ad revenue.