I spend a lot of time on redddit, and I really hope these protests succeed, even though they won't. This new move (intentionally eliminating third party apps by introducing comically high API fees) is incredibly anti-user and has pissed off most of their core users and mods. The mods are volunteer workers who basically make reddit able to exist.
So a lot of subreddits, big and little, are protesting. They are continuing to protest. That's great. But there are two reasons, IMO, that it won't ultimately work:
1) Reddit will simply replace the mods of those subreddits with ones who will agree to open them back up to business as usual. There's nothing the current mods can do to stop it. Yes, this will piss off some of the most active contributors and workers, but this leads us to the second point:
2) There's nowhere else to go. When Digg did something similar (implementing extremely anti-user policies that pissed off their core user base), Reddit already existed. It was a relatively easy transition for the users to slide over to Reddit. However, at the moment, nothing else exists for Reddit users to move to. There's nothing in the pipeline, no up and coming social post/discussion sites. There's nothing else really like it that can absorb the culture.
This is a shrewd move by Reddit. It was the right time, from a business perspective. However, while Reddit is not actively dying, I do believe this will lead to the ultimate downfall of the site. Driving users to the official app and new site is an effort to boost "engagement" is going to kill a lot of the appeal of the site. Reddit is actively trying to fight against the way that most users actually interact with the site, instead trying to boost popular "content creators," monetize views, and push sponsored content and ads.
Redditors don't want TikTok and don't want Instagram, but Reddit sees the money in those sites and wants to move in that direction. Reddit wants to be ready when TikTok is banned to absorb those content creators and sponsors.