Honest question since I don't really know how reddit works: Why can't reddit just forcefully re-open the subs that have been taken private? Mods are using powers given to them by the platform and I don't get why they are not being stripped of (some of) those powers.
Taking an authoritarian approach might just cause even more noise for even longer. I think Huffman would like a war of attrition instead. Eventually mods will feel powerless because the execs won’t budge, and denying the community access to the subreddit will cause more problems than it appears to solve.
Frankly, the mods can just quit permanently. It’s an Internet forum, not life and death for them. There are so many other things that they could be doing with their time. Heck, I reckon it would be better for their mental and physical health in the long run if they quit doing internet janitor work and drop the perpetually online lifestyle - at least I believe that’s a requirement to effective moderate a fairly active subreddit.