I don't think that's a particularly new thing. I used to be a very active reddit user, but I haven't been active on the site for 2-3 years now. But even 3+ year

I don't think that's a particularly new thing. I used to be a very active reddit user, but I haven't been active on the site for 2-3 years now. But even 3+ years ago I recall plenty of (granted, anecdotal) reports of commercial astroturfing even for relatively nice subreddits.