They may have fell for the astroturfing campaign or just don’t see the issues due to not having the traffic that larger subs do. Even if they did, if they never show up on r/all, the only people that would care that they went dark, are their small communities.

Then there’s the results. Mod teams got completely gutted and replaced in the bigger subs. Why would they risk their positions and community for a site where they post for free?

Maybe they polled too. If the communities didn’t want to stay private, what’s the point?