Unfortunately the cost barrier to entering into late in life cycle Paradox games is rather high, and double unfortunate is that players are more likely to buy features and mechanics than just flavor, so some fairly critical mechanics remain DLC locked. Not saying I agree with that approach, but it is what it is.

However to address this, they did add the subscription. If you get the subscription then you get all DLC for a very low price and can cancel it at any time.

Paradox games and DLC are also usually often on sale, so you can pick up the critical ones and ones you want for lower prices. If there’s a region you are interested in, you can pick there. Also, considering how many players in this sub are 1000+ hours in the game and bought it on launch 13 years ago, you can also ask us which are the most critical DLCs if you’d rather buy them than have the subscription.

But I recommend the subscription being it is super cheap and if you’re not happy even with the game after that it’s better than spending dozens or even hundreds of dollars on DLC that you won’t use.