I mean, when you say “favored”, you mean it’s the only one easily available, and the only one acknowledged to exist in a way that most users would even be aware of it. Which is a strange definition for that word, since it implies readily available options that people are aware of.

back when they made the modern interface default there was a lot of blow back and a lot of information about how to keep using the old interface. but yes, it’s fair to assume new users are unaware of the old interface. it is also fair to assume users with a small number of sub subscriptions were also not exposed to the information. but you said “But I guess someone who actually never knew reddit until after that happened might think it the other way around.”, what i meant was that users who were exposed to the old interface still favor the old interface.

Debatable. Not sure what “dead” means in this context, but if I can assume you mean “Myspace dead” or “Digg dead”, then I have serious doubts. If instead you mean “tweeners are upset grandpa uses Facebook so it’s not cool anymore” then it’s been dead for years and simply doesn’t care.

true. facebook can’t technically be “dead” because it’s the de-facto internet in countries without net neutrality. meta (google, line, and a few others) are paying providers to be “free and available” despite no paid internet subscription, and thus people who can’t afford an internet connection in these places (which is most people) hence use facebook as their de-facto internet. it’s impossible for alternatives to challenge facebook in these regions because there’s no pocket deep enough to challenge them. but that doesn’t mean facebook isn’t dying, and losing relevance, to other platforms in countries with proper net neutrality laws.

most non-tech hobby communities now only live on facebook, thus the people in said hobbies are stuck there. if groups was somehow replaced by an improved social media platform specifically for this goal, with enough budget to market itself. facebook would lose most it’s relevance. i can see this happen especially if buy and sell was less restricted and capitalized on by the alternative. facebooks new buy and sell restrictions in groups has caused a lot of these communities to get pissed and looking for alternatives/solutions, many of those i’m in are using discord as the medium for trade and exchange, but it’s far from ideal.