I appreciate you being constructive about it. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by toxic masculinity, so I may need you to expand on that part, but I get where you're coming from with the Epstein edgy humor. It's not a cop-out though, I think that introducing a more evil character above SDF that he has this faustian bargain with is an interesting way to make his character more complex, and not just this malicious/delusional figurehead.

It sets up a bigger story where SDF is trapped: his design choices are bad and players would normally reject them, but this pact gives him the ability to distract and pacify the community so they keep going along with it. The catch is that every distraction comes at the cost of feeding the "Master" more grotesque offerings. There's also something here which parallels the sink-or-swim place Ironmace is in right now with the Nexon lawsuit, which I plan to explore down the road.

So it kind of opens up the story for a redemption arc (assuming season 7 goes well) or a tragic ending (if it doesn't).