I think they're not wrong either. I was rather invested in what used to be a small subreddit that is now huge. It's a shitshow now sometimes but back then most of the posters were regulars and could recognized each-other. Moderating was a lot easier and context and what have you could be taken into account. I know i could trust one person's expertise, that another often would take a specific stance, another that was always an asshole but very careful to stay on the edge of getting banned and what was technically allowed generally got downvoted. There was space for public meta discussions about sources (not)accepted by the community that actually had an impact, etc

Experiencing the transition has made me value small communities much much more.