Let’s not pretend it’s all about “bad actors”. They don’t want masked traffic at all, the “bad actors” gives them an excuse.
And we know this because if the IP was the issue, they wouldn’t let you use the site at all, but they will work fine after signing in. Any of these VPNs work as long as you’re logged into reddit, even with a throwaway account.
Just make a throwaway account. The VPNs work fine when you’re signed in.
I know that’s not an acceptable answer for some but if they want to associate your activity with a throwaway account, let them, because they still have no way of knowing which person on the VPN is using that throwaway account.