I think a lot of this pain is caused by people who think that correlation == causation. Reddit's app users are more active than its mobile users, sure. But th

I think a lot of this pain is caused by people who think that correlation == causation. Reddit's app users are more active than its mobile users, sure. But that doesn't mean that the mobile users will become more active when you force them to be app users. Eventually, all "light" users will abandon reddit while the "hardcore" users are forced to use the app. The metrics of user engagement will look reeeaally good, but the breadth and depth of reddit will be gone. And as a result, reddit will go the way of digg.