I haven't seen any notable number of people arguing that the API should remain free no matter what. I have seen a lot of people arguing that reddit is being disingenuous with the API pricing (and also making up stuff about the Apollo dev), in a way that makes it seem like what they really want is to kill all third-party clients rather than monetize them -- when a lot of users really don't like the first-party client for design / accessibility reasons.
It's worth bearing in mind that reddit's business is built on user-provided content and moderation. It doesn't have some sort of right to have the users provide these things if they're unhappy with the direction of the service.
It's worth bearing in mind that reddit's business is built on user-provided content and moderation. It doesn't have some sort of right to have the users provide these things if they're unhappy with the direction of the service.