I got the screenshot from one of the deposed mods, who has been around since 2012 (I'm one of the earliest sub members FWIW, but never a mod), he was part of the last cohort of "good ones" following the deposing of the sub founder. This person certainly is not a friend, I'd generally struggle to befriend the kind of personality attracted to Reddit's system of moderation, and especially not after already witnessing the many concealed knives.

Hopefully this also answers the question of why you haven't seen it before.

Is any of this unexpected? Not at all, it's Reddit, this is structural. That's why I find the actions and encouragement from the admins far more interesting.