Like some other things reddit tells visitors, they're basically lying, or at best, being inconsistent. I've tried old reddit here and there in the past month or so and sometimes it says I need an account for "safety", other times, it doesn't.
I tried it with a browser that probably still has cookies from an account I deleted 4 months ago, with no problem. Then, tried it with a Private mode window - that one asked for a login.
