Reddit gifted a small insider group the most exclusive and valuable Reddit Avatars [Serious]

Last week Reddit released an exclusive collection of free Reddit Avatars to the WSB community called, "Memetic Traders x Reddit Collectible Avatars" viewable on OpenSea here: https://opensea.io/collection/memetic-traders-x-reddit-collectible-avatars.

This was a free drop to the top users of the WSB sub and vastly more exclusive than any free drop we've seen before. Currently there are over 4000 Avatars in this collection compared to the 4M+ free avatars Reddit has dropped. In addition, it's rarer than the paid avatars with Gen 1 and Gen 2 sitting at approximately 45,000 Avatars per each generation.

The Issue

I'm all for communities getting specific drops. However, the game is rigged. If a user is eligible for this drop, their avatar was randomly generated unless you were part of this insider group. Not only did this group get the first 24 drops, they got exclusive attributes that no one else at WSB got.

https://preview.redd.it/0pmwhkv4qh5a1.png?1069&format=png&auto=webp&s=cf8f1f83646bfb3c8c11678c1a7ad1a3f752b744

• Hat - Gold Hold (0.54% have this trait)
• Left Hand - Gold Money Printer (0.54% have this trait)
• Right Hand - Gold Rocket (0.54% have this trait)

That's right, no one besides them got these golden traits. I'll talk about gold in the next paragraph.

WSB Mod, OPINION_IS_UNPOPULAR got the #1 drop in this collection, a Gold Hedge Snoo (https://opensea.io/assets/matic/0xa3396af20ce52bd3c7ab6d7046be617257f60eb9/0), which has received offers for 3 ETH. In Gen 2, the solid gold Midas Touch sold for 8+ ETH at the height of the rally. Gold is often the most desired trait across existing NFTs like CryptoPunks and Apes.

What did these 24 lucky insiders do to earn the most exclusive and rare Avatars? They partnered with a Reddit Admin and provided ideas for the collection which was about 6-8 hours of "work" in discord: https://i.redd.it/3bbrcnh0m35a1.jpg

Open Questions

Owners of Free and Paid Avatars, what do you think about this? Should Reddit set the precedent to gift mods and insiders the best Avatars for future drops? Should Reddit be more transparent when they cherry-pick the best avatar attributes for "special" users when the majority are randomized? Should Reddit give individual communities free drops?

I'm all for artists getting the first drop in their collections like we've seen with Gen 1 and Gen 2. I'm also for key contributors receiving one of the early drops in a collection, but I am definitely against them receiving first dibs and exclusive attributes. If these insiders got random attributes like the rest of the WSB top users than I would be okay with that too.

Edit Bonus:

When I brought this up to the r / avatartrading community I was accused of, "brigading against a sub and moderators which is a violating of Reddit TOS." The mod locked my post for commenting and then retracted it once the WSB main mod (Opinion) wanted to comment.

Am I really breaking TOS?