I do not understand what extra functionality is gained by making the site so much slower. I go on Reddit primarily for text content. Threaded comments and HTML <a> tags.
WHY does it NEED to be so SLOW?
For this degree of sluggishness, it feels like you could build a site that fulfills all of reddit's functionality—and have a crypto miner running in the background.
I had the same feeling when Chase redesigned their online banking and I had to upgrade my dedicated linux banking computer from an old Lenovo Ideapad to a somewhat more powerful old Thinkpad.
Because the comment thread has to pop out and have a fancy grayed out background and infinite scroll and ... and ... because Javascript, dude! More Javascript makes everything slower, but it's so much better.
Performance is readily acknowledged as a feature.[0]
There are gradations of intentionality and prioritization.
I don't think anyone said, "Let's make the thing slow." That being said, there was definitely someone(s) out there intentionally prioritizing something(s) other than performance.
WHY does it NEED to be so SLOW?
For this degree of sluggishness, it feels like you could build a site that fulfills all of reddit's functionality—and have a crypto miner running in the background.