If you show up to vote in a poll and immediately bounce, then yes you’ll show up in their Daily Active User count. But it’s a vanity metric. The important thing is posts viewed /session length, since that’s what matters more for serving up ads, and also contributing content.

I suspect this may be a more impactful protest than simply blacking out, because in the case of blackouts the front page algorithm will find content to spoonfeed users from other subs. On the other hand, if the top subs are flooding the feed with inane posts and upvoting them all, I suspect that’s more likely to drive away casual users and really impact the $$$ metrics.