It's amusing to think of this move as a political game. Reddit took a stance to demonize those willing to organize and respond to a change they perceived as bad. Now those moderators have outed themselves and are being removed from the site. Meanwhile a contingent of somewhat principled users is also moving away from the site.

It's a bit far-fetched though. We're over a year away from the big election. Financial motivations certainly seem like the more primary motivator.

I'm guessing the next iteration of the protest if mods aren't allowed to make their subs NSFW that the mods will simply allow a few NSFW/advertiser unfriendly posts to go unremoved. "Gee it should would be easier to moderate with third party apps, but since they went away things seem to be slipping through the cracks."

If a mainstream advertiser thinks it's possible their ad could be displayed next to NSFW content, they probably won't post it. The whole optics of the fight between Reddit and its users has probably soured a lot of potential future business regardless.

Does anyone really think Reddit is going to make their IPO?

They are squeezing for nothing.

There's already a thread for this https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36412619