There's a case to be made on either end. The best thing would be for people to move to better pastures with dignity, but the malicious compliance and worse create headaches and embarrassment for spez that may pay off in the press, or at some other date. Mods getting banned for making their accounts porn accounts certainly know they're going out the door, but they'd prefer to be thrown out.
And ultimately, for the veteran redditors who are watching all this, they want to see the end with their own eyes.