Precisely this.

C-suite cares about one thing: “Number go up”

They do not give a shit why people are still on reddit. They look at the site traffic analytics and as long as the numbers are going up, they think they’re doing the right thing. Your mere presence on the site is only seen as opportunity for them to squeeze out more ad revenue.

“But I don’t click on the ads!”

They don’t care about that either! Every time an ad appears on your screen, that gets recorded as a data point in their analytics, regardless of whether or not you interact with it.

They just want to see the numbers go up. They don’t care how it happens, as long as it happens.

If you want to hit them where it hurts, stop engaging with the site.