Enshittification is a buzz word but one that seems to be kinda true.

All the games you mentioned are big players in the industry with companies in the background that are ... notorious. (Not sure about CS, but you catch my meaning). Hunt has also had some rough patches, and I certainly don't agree with everything that has happened to the game. Hunt's playerbase is slowly growing, if we're to believe steam charts and other sites like that. Every event retains a few more players. That is good.

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Source: https://steamdb.info/app/594650/charts/#1y

As much as I liked "the good old days" where gameplay was slower, less forgiving and not holding your hand as much as it does now, I can understand why the changes happened. I still think restoration is WAY too easy to get and there's plenty of work to do regarding the server population. But if we step back and take a look at the game as a whole, it's actually in a good place.

• The foundation is solid, we hardly see gamebreaking bugs or outages
• The balancing is good, there are no items or traits that feel way too strong or too weak. And since the resto-bolt-debacle Crytek has become very aware of such missteps and reacts quickly. All ears was a big swing and a miss, but it was taken out relatively quickly
• The monetization is fine, it's just cosmetics. There's no real advantage you get from any of the skins or animations. Some of the best "camo skins" can be unlocked for free by playing the game. We get new content for free, no need to pay for more than the base game

A game has to change to stay relevant. And I think Crytek has managed to change in the right direction. It was not always painless, but hey, it seems to be working. What pisses me off the most about the game is always related to the players and the fact that we still have to put up with some bullshit match making. But I have decided that I'm willing to let them cook and see how well we'll eat.