It seems like the absolute most chaotic decision for anyone. Any community where any tension exists will be having constant campaigning for recalls.

The king is instituting one component of democracy because he thinks the peasents will vote his way for one specific issue. But even in the immediate term this will cause more grief than the reddit blackout ever did.

I can think of a few specific communities where there has been significant long term resentments against the mods. Particularly as the mods have enforced rules on the community to avoid being kicked off reddit. I bet within 1 week, all or most of these will have mod recall votes going to remove the mods. If successful the subs will be full of reddit rule breaking straight away. The new mods will not mod.

Its really hard to tell if he just wants the website out of his life or what. Maybe buddy just needs a change personally.