I often wonder about the dumpster fire that is the web version of Reddit. Normally I assume incompetence over malice, but - they had a perfectly decent working link aggregator site over a decade ago, and more than sufficent resources and budget to maintain that site and make small improvements to the UX and design over time. So the only conclusion is that this is a planned, prolonged and deliberate act of self-sabotage and vandalism.
The mobile app is terrible too. Even many of the 3rd party apps are not very good, especially on iOS. There are some good ones for Android like Boost and Relay, which I wish I could get on iOS.
It is an embarrassingly bad mobile app and web UI for one of the most popular sites in the world that really grew up natively on the modern web.
I think they are trying to facebookifying (for the lack of better word) their interface. The trade off here is that user engagement lost due to bulky js is covered by the increase in user engagement due to flashy web features. user engagement is corporate double speak for user addiction.
