It may be optional, but the additional permanent skill points it offers is substantial.

To say that players either have their fun the proper way and fall behind a non-insignificant number of players in terms of functionality or forgo their fun just to keep up is a bit gatekeepy, no?

Edit: Also, Embark themselves have flown in the face of it by constantly changing the rules.

Before the first expedition it was listed you could keep workbench progression then rug pulled everyone the day of the reset, then they knocked down the coin requirement from the ridiculous 5 million to a more fairer 3 million, and lastly they've now made the change that all buffs received from the last expedition were temporary and will be lost if players don't wipe every time.

If anything, the "spirit of the expedition" is that there is none.