OK, so if each user were to use their own API key, reddit would still have the same costs but nowhere near the revenue, which speaks to a pricing structure aimed at the status quo where the API key is per developer instead. What's the betting that if apps switch to allowing users to specify their own API key that reddit actually allows most users to do this? The '90%' number is meaningless: apps which use the reddit API (or any API with a free tier) have an extremely long tail of niche uses which effectively no-one cares about.
The comment about API optimization is inane, apps already try to do this and bump up against the problem that reddit's API is atrocious (try actually getting all the comments in a comment chain once they get collapsed! if you actually want to succeed, even on a chain with only ~100 comments, you're gonna need around 30 API calls. Most apps don't bother to try, and the 'more comments' button is invariably broken).
I'm not aware that reddit ever presented user level API keys as an option, they'd likely instead base it on Reddit premium tiers tied to the OAuth account. But again, that's not currently a viable option on the table and if users started enmass requesting API keys intended for developers, yes that would get throttled quickly because that's not what they're intended for.
>90% of users is not a meaningless number by any measure. I'd suggest that punishing the average users due to the power use of the outliers is a terrible value proposition.
Developers hold the ability to throttle and/or price based on that.
I am a developer that has built clients and tools around the reddit API. If most apps don't bother to optimize, then that's a choice they can make.
The comment about API optimization is inane, apps already try to do this and bump up against the problem that reddit's API is atrocious (try actually getting all the comments in a comment chain once they get collapsed! if you actually want to succeed, even on a chain with only ~100 comments, you're gonna need around 30 API calls. Most apps don't bother to try, and the 'more comments' button is invariably broken).