Yes, that is why I would much rather Google promote Reddit than forums in general. If they did the latter, it would just encourage SEO spam to move from generating fake blogs to generating fake forums full of AI discussions, and cause product spam to focus even more on posting in forums (which is already a problem).
The current arrangement requires a two-step search to find good forums on a subject, then search those forums for my question rather than have Google directly surface content from the forums when I search for my question. But the extra effort is worth it to keep forums from becoming SEO targets.
The current arrangement requires a two-step search to find good forums on a subject, then search those forums for my question rather than have Google directly surface content from the forums when I search for my question. But the extra effort is worth it to keep forums from becoming SEO targets.