It was obvious right from the outset that Reddit's assertions as to the costs and motivations were not remotely genuine.
There was a comment early on to the effect of "it should only cost about $1 per user per month". Were that in fact the case, they could easily have added their own payment method to collect said dollar directly from users, allowing API / 3rd-party client access on a per-account basis. No weird limitations, just the experience you were already enjoying for a nominal fee.
The whole principle was from the outset pants-on-head idiotic, and it's clear the few times I have been to Reddit since that both the quality and quantity of content has noticeably reduced. Who could have predicted that the "freeloading" 3rd-party app users were the ones providing the bulk of the content (y'know, that content that, for all purposes, is Reddit, and they get to sell ads against).