The last major holdouts in the protest against Reddit’s API pricing relented, abandoning the so-called “John Oliver rules” which only allowed posts featuring the TV host. It's the official end of the battle. The Reddit protest is over, and Reddit won.
General submissions have tons of comments, so there are actual discussions going on, motivating users to check back often. Also (at least for now), the discussions have less noise.
Content-based subreddits (like instantkarma, holdmyfries) where there is minimal discussion can be easily replicated with a bot, until organic submissions reach a critical mass.
That leaves community based subreddits, but when Reddit aggravates the community leaders they can easily move (like piracy did).