Reddit’s policy has always been that subreddit requests only apply if someone actually goes vacant.
Q: If the current top mod for, say, a default sub had decided to just delete the sub in protest over the API changes what are the odds Reddit would have left it dead and waited for someone to request the name for an entirely new from scratch sub to be started as opposed to undoing the deletion and handing ownership to the next mod in line (if they were willing to take it)?