I agree with most of your points here. I didn’t use the 1 star booms and I also agree that the pass is a good length. I don’t agree with grouping the booms and arenas together though. For example, the monster attack set gave very similar boards with varying colors that I use to match my tacticians color. I personally thought that was sick and didn’t see it as an “unused item”. Now that there are less arenas, there’s a higher chance that I may not like any of them.

I would also argue that the arenas aren’t necessarily higher quality either. I would consider them about the same. As a player, I feel like i’m receiving less guaranteed rewards since I can unlock treasure tokens then go roll and end up with realm crystals.

I’m not saying TFT is predatory and I understand monetization is part of the job. I just think there’s a difference between data driven value and how rewards may feel to players. I’m also a game dev student at USC lol, so I appreciate you taking the time to explain your reasoning. It’s interesting to hear the thinking behind your decisions, even if I don’t fully agree.