You’re not wrong about inertia. Short-term nothing will change, but with a much less stable foundation of power users generating and moderating good content, quality will drop.

In the long-term a significant drop in quality will mean a drop in users, particularly if something else of better quality shows up.

If your strategy us being a shithole, then you’d better hope nothing better shows up, because that’s the bet you’re making. Historically that’s rarely the case - something better always comes along eventually.