The CEO is correct. The only thing that might actually affect reddit would be if the major subs purged their entire subs, but I assume this would take time, and they'd probably intervene to stop it. It's one thing to replace the mods, a whole other to have to build the popular subs back up from scratch.

Realistically, nothing will change on reddit. It will keep getting shittier, but most people won't care and will continue using it. My hope is that places like Lemmy grow to bring in a more select crowd of users (i.e., they can actually figure out how to create an account and then use it; not exactly a high bar, but one that is too much for the 'common' user of most social media).