Focusing on profits and focusing on the user's experience, in this case, are pretty much the same thing
Plenty of companies like Reddit can do and have done many things that aren't in the best interest of the userbase but make TONS of money. It just depends on how you make the change.
You're leaving out the angle of "spin." Say you have a new idea that would increase revenue for your company but your user base will never go for it. Spin it. Call it something entirely different like "Mod Tools" and conveniently leave out the part where you eventually monetize celebrity accounts with the new "Mod Tools." Let everyone get on board with "Mod Tools," no one will fight "Mod Tools." And then, under the nose of the user base, tell celebrities that they can pay your company for a "Celebrity Account" with necessary "PR Tools" that will allow them to have multiple people use their account (like PR reps), they can ban and hide people in their threads, and censor out inappropriate questions or content that hurts their brand. Now, your user base would never go for this idea if you marketed it as "We are moving forward with a plan that will allow celebrities to censor content on our website for our company's financial gain."
Plenty of companies like Reddit can do and have done many things that aren't in the best interest of the userbase but make TONS of money. It just depends on how you make the change.
You're leaving out the angle of "spin." Say you have a new idea that would increase revenue for your company but your user base will never go for it. Spin it. Call it something entirely different like "Mod Tools" and conveniently leave out the part where you eventually monetize celebrity accounts with the new "Mod Tools." Let everyone get on board with "Mod Tools," no one will fight "Mod Tools." And then, under the nose of the user base, tell celebrities that they can pay your company for a "Celebrity Account" with necessary "PR Tools" that will allow them to have multiple people use their account (like PR reps), they can ban and hide people in their threads, and censor out inappropriate questions or content that hurts their brand. Now, your user base would never go for this idea if you marketed it as "We are moving forward with a plan that will allow celebrities to censor content on our website for our company's financial gain."