I feel reddit is having a near death moment.

There are prowling bots trying to strike up engagement with stupid open ended questions "do you find that using a golf simulator improved your golf?"

And some subs seem infested with submarine advertising, posts that mention a single product name almost in passing.

Nearly always these people have their posts hidden. Reddit has always been looser, people can edit and delete their comments and entire posts, and enjoy some frothy conversation while hiding their old rants.

There are plenty of signals that reddit could use to push out bots but they just don't seem to prioritize it.

When you find your self wasting time responding to a bot it's a bit of a sucker punch. Too many of them and Reddit will be on the ropes as a wasteland.

Every other post too. At this point it is quite challenging to find a genuine human interaction on popular online sites.

Reddit in a way is about finding an echo chamber with people who share your beliefs, not necessarily finding facts. Great for spreading misinformation and smelling your own farts.