But the person "selling" the link is not the same as the person posting it. If I link to something on reddit, I get paid $0 either way, so there's no reason for

But the person "selling" the link is not the same as the person posting it. If I link to something on reddit, I get paid $0 either way, so there's no reason for me to choose an affiliated merchant over a non-affilated one. In fact, I won't even know which ones are or aren't participating.