I’m not sure if this is new, but when I clicked on the /r/pics protest post link from the frontpage here, I was redirected to this: https://old.reddit.com/premium
I’m not sure if this is well-known or not that they’re pushing it now, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it, especially on old.reddit.
Mods don’t contribute financially to Reddit, or at least they don’t have to. (I’d be less likely to trust a mod who did, actually, but that’s me.) Mods are used and abused by Reddit. They provide value/work for which they are not compensated.