Not only is this not relevant at all, but Reddit also gave you 4 years of Gold (now Premium) as part of that sunset for buying the paid version. On top of however much use you got out of that initial (and tiny) fee for Alien Blue pro.

Reddit Gold/Premium includes an ad-free experience on their site and app.

How is that at all related to this story?

yeah, check out narwhal. its pretty good. not great, but better than reddit-facebook

As another option, Apollo[0] is fantastic, and also independently produced.

0: https://apolloapp.io