Aha I see clearly now. So that is my Reddit make you reload a comment thread when you click the 'expand thread' sometimes. To get more add views? I just thought it was inline with all their other crappy ux choises.

In this case they want to increase some KPI instead.

Christ. Some people are willing to believe anything when it affirms their baseless beliefs. You’ve taken some reply that was about another situation entirely and let it convince you. I can think of multiple more likely explanations. Enough for this to at least be in the “who knows?” bucket.