We'll see how it plays out. I have a feeling reddit may currently be putting in artificial upvotes and comments to save things. They've done it when reddit got their start, and as someone who works in tech, I know nothing's stopping them to create a fake 10 year old account with thousands of karma and fake old replies to do some social engineering to make it appear that nothing has changed. This might work out, or it might not.
Artificial sweeteners is one of the reasons I'm not obese. You can quote me all the studies you want, diet coke is not a gateway drink to regular coke, and splenda on my black coffee doesn't make me crave a caramel macchiato.