The company confirmed to me that it is moving in a direction that other platforms have taken: converting users to the app. Reddit says that the test aims to find out if people like me—those who use the service but aren’t generally logged in—get a better experience with the app.
All free services eventually evolve into this or they die. Nothing gold can stay.
All for-profit services eventually evolve into that. Ones run by non-profit foundations and funded by donations can continue to exist without enshittifying indefinitely.