Call me unsympathetic but this pity party is pathetic. "The refund is out of pocket", is actually a massive lie. A refund is simply returning funds you collected, I do not care that you spent the money. Personally I call it a big scam taking advantage of the "hate on reddit policy" and "kindness of people". Do not fall for it folks, actively tell this developer to go F himself for even asking. Give your money to a real charity, you owe this stranger nothing. He entered into a business and knew the risks getting in! He also likely enjoyed some very nice reward while the going was good, pathetic is my polite word, don't reward stupid.
Wow, this is an incredibly unsympathetic and unrealistic view.
An app developer by definition sells apps in order to earn their income. That's why they make apps. How long exactly should someone leave their entire revenue in the bank for you to not consider them a scammer?
Reddit is receiving hate because they negotiated in bad faith. They lied to this developer and the entire third-party developer community. The publicly promised to charge reasonable rates for the API calls, but in fact they're charging unsustainable rates.
They lied often, repeatedly, and in bad faith.
They failed to follow their own statements about the timing of the roll out of these costs, they failed to follow their own statements about the cost of this change, and then they told people all the developers are in the wrong here.
The CEO personally lied about this developer, saying he was trying to extort Reddit, yet the developer has recordings and transcripts of all calls.
Had Reddit not made these decisions to screw the developer community, people would still be happily paying for the tool he made. Reddit's own app is awful, and it's lacking features for moderators that the company promised they'd add more than eight years ago.
I'm one of the users of the app that won't be requesting a refund, because I enjoyed what the developer made, and I understand that he tried to make this work with Reddit, and they screwed him.
I loved his app, I used it many times a day.
And guess what‽ I can and will still give money to charity. I can help out a developer that got screwed while doing the bed the could AND help charity! Because I took the time to follow this issue, read the coverage, and I know what I'm talking about.
Quick note, your polite word isn't polite. It's misinformed and incredibly uncharitable.