There are just so many words to excuse defederation when it just comes down to technical limitation (not all QoL and moderation tools are ready yet) and power users insisting on curating their precious communities.
Is it really that hard to get that most people are upset because most people just want a high quantity of contents in the most efficient dose possible? This is why Reddit grew to what it is in the first place. Reddit was never really about quality of content. It has always been about user driven contents over curated contents.
The inconvenience of defederation is exactly the strife with the whole situation. Communities splintering is not exactly something new, it happened many times on reddit before. The problem is that this is a really crappy time for defederation: when people are still new to this platforms, when there are many power users and mods still exploring this platform as alternating option, when a lot of QoL tools have not been deployed for an expected experience, when a lot of communities still have not have its helpful members start their contribution, etc.
I suppose these kinds of things ought to happen anyways, as people are still figuring things out. But to regard this as anything but a shit show is blind imo.
I really doubt the number of people using uncensored chat bot is that high. The drop of usage probably has more to do with novelty and AI general limitation.
The AI models are not always that easy to use and they are being developed at neck breaking speed, so I cannot imagine the numbers of people dedicate themselves to use such AI would be that high.
There is a niche of using AI chatbot as RP tool for sure, but it has always been a separated thing from the start and it cannot cause such sudden drop.