A lot the post above boils down to "Trust me bro." As early users of a new website, what assurances can be put in place to help us believe the motives here? As the site grows, and costs exponentially more, your mindset and desires are sure to change.
One of the big issues I see with Reddit right now, is that we the community never "owned" the data. Now that the site owner's motives changed, we're stuck in this weird state where the community made the site what it is today, and now the owner is taking it back to monetize it for his own gain. If the community is required to help moderate, grow, and maintain an organized dataset, it would be ideal if somehow the community shares ownership or has assurances it remains faithful to the statements above we are buying into.