I think the worst part is they are retroactively removing awards. If I spent money on a useless virtual award, I'd want it to stay there in perpetuity.
I think in almost all cases it is just used to reward (or more likely) punish employees through pay or continued employment. I don’t think they actually care to improve their products, processes, etc.
TLDR if you don’t give all 10s the employee gets in trouble and eventually fired, even for things not in their control
More than likely costs for storage and what not. Everything points to reddit being out of money