But long term it could. People might get annoyed by the lack of content other than protesting and check reddit less. It also keeps the conversation on alternatives like lemmy here.
Also, if reddit believes that the community has genuinely turned against them and will ruin everything on purpose, they might rethink their actions (obviously unlikely).
Sometimes people just like to flip tables out of frustration even if it won't accomplish much. A lot of angry redditors just want to burn it all down and I hope they succeed.
As an extreme example, if /r/place was truly covered with "fuck spez" 100%, would that be an enjoyable thing for people who don't care about what's going on? They'd probably get mad and leave. Which would hurt reddit.
It also costs reddit extra money to deal with all of this.
It's similar to workers protesting instead of just quitting. There's a point to protesting and not everything is solved with a simple boycott.
When digg was dying, many people still used digg, but just to point others to reddit. In hindsight, would you say that it didn't matter since they were still using digg?
It sucks to hear when you're truly down. Feels like the pain will last forever. But it truly does start to fade after a while and continues to do so as time marches on.
I've been through excruciating heartbreak a decade or so ago and it's just "meh" now.
Continued protests could drive other users away. If they think the content sucks or is annoying, they'll check the site less and that'll affect reddit.
It's a pickup truck. Often drive by assholes who like them but don't need them