It's possible. But another possibility is that they gave up the idea that users would give Reddit money, and instead they want advertisers to buy upvotes with RL money.

Fake currencies like Reddit coins are useful when you're milking users, as it's harder for them to determine the real cost of their actions. For example: how much money would you need to spend to award your own post to become the most awarded post of a subreddit? (A: it depends on which coin package you bought, which award you're granting, in which sub you're posting, etc.) It's probably more expensive than the user thinks, i.e. the "sucker tax".

This backfires for advertisers because they will run the maths and notice your outrageous prices, and they won't pay the "sucker tax". And any additional loop between money and service raises their suspicion, thus the risk that they associate with your platform. When dealing with them, you're better off streamlining everything, and getting rid of things that they might see as risk-increasing uncertainty.

And one of those risk-increasing uncertainties is the value of awards vs. votes in the visibility of a post (i.e. a potential ad). How many users sort by "top" vs. "awarded"? Are you better off buying awards or upvotes? Reddit just removed those two uncertainties, plus one loop (buy Reddit coins to buy stuff → buy stuff directly).

If my reasoning above is correct, bots running rampant in Reddit will be the least concern. Expect stuff like the top post in r/linux being Microsoft "informing" you on the "risks" of running Linux, and the moderator responsible for correctly marking as spam to be "relieved" from his "duties". r/cooking will be full of nothing but advertisement for food chains, r/youtube with an "exclusive promotion for Snoos who buy YT Premium", stuff like this.