Let’s be real, Joe Public doesn’t care about the changes that caused the protests. They just want somewhere to go to see content, and reddits algorithms serve them content. If they have to scroll past some apps on a less-than-ideal app or the regular website, so be it. Most of the internet is shit anyways, reddits clients aren’t much better or worse in that regard.
It’s introduced a lot of people to the fediverse, which is awesome. And will probably have done a non-zero amount of damage to Reddit. But it’ll survive so long as Joe Public is willing to put up with it to see their cat pictures.