I agree with all of this. I definitely think at least some of them are astroturfing. The mods from r/adviceanimals got kicked and ever since then, they mostly post memes that say things like “the official app isn’t so bad, you guys!” We all know u/spez isn’t above editing comments for petty reasons and since he got caught, I’m sure he’s more careful about not getting caught editing things to suit him now. I wonder if the voting system is rigged, too, at least in some subs.
I have auto update turned off for apps, so I didn’t get the last update for Infinity and I can still use it to see Reddit, for now. Once it dies I’m out though. I can’t imagine they will be able to get enough subscriptions to support the app, so I’m not really sure what the goal is here.
The Infinity listing in the Play store links to this post that has a bit more info (warning: Reddit link) https://www.reddit.com/r/Infinity_For_Reddit/comments/147bhsg/the_future_of_infinity/
Even the people subbed to r/Infinity_For_Reddit are saying they won’t buy a subscription. Wouldn’t Infinity be racking up a huge bill from Reddit once the API change goes into effect? There’s no way subscriptions will cover that so I don’t understand why they’re doing this.