They will lose a lot of advertisers if they go all NSFW. That's exactly why Tumblr got rid of porn.
You seem to be ignoring the fact that reddit wants to go public and have been working toward an IPO. If all of their power users, mods, and advertisers leave, it could very easily ruin that IPO for them.
Even if the IPO is successful, I doubt spez will be in charge much longer. I imagine he knows this and is probably trying to maximize the value before he gets the boot so he can get that sweet sweet golden parachute.
Nah, this isn't the time for malicious compliance. They couldn't care less if you say "fuck spez" a bunch of times in your mod messages.
This is the time for calling their bluff and making them forcibly remove and replace you. If enough mods of enough subs did this, they'd have a really hard time finding replacements for all of them. Especially unpaid replacements. Let them find out how much they took the free labor for granted. See if he thinks they're "landed gentry" when they stop doing the admin's job for free.