In the end it was a way for many moderators to hijack a community and transfer it to their next pet social space (Discord seems to be the current favorite).
It would depend on the subreddit. r/stoicism (aka r/bro-icism ;) ) seemed very unimpressed and self-involved, and didn't see how the concept of 'virtue' entered into it. r/datingoverfifty overwhelmingly sided with its mods, in part because that subreddit was so actively moderated that women over fifty could post there without getting harassed, and scam artists were quickly run off by the mods. As such, that subreddit had experienced moderation as a positive force and trusted its mods' opinions, and its mods were repeatedly in touch with the subreddit explaining what they wanted to do and why, and asking whether they had user support.
Looks like we saw different experiences, is all I'll say.
This has been my experience too.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/148w58w/vote_s...