You might be missing quite a few points in general but I think, I can see where you are coming from…

Yet, there is, at least for me, a big difference in:

Apollo: oh we have some fun icons, people love them, maybe they would pay a little to unlock more and have fun with them, or even better, enjoy the premium subscription and have even more useful stuff

Reddit: well, other apps were selling shit like this and people loved it and payed money for it, we want that money, let’s block what we already have and see what will happen…

— yup, this sounds about right in my imagination