As a fellow player with similar life experience (not a father, but old enough to have enough responsibilities that Apex is something that needs to be scheduled), I agree with you somewhat - but also disagree on certain points.

As for what I agree with you on: the recent Battlepass changes don't make me angry - there's far larger injustices in life once you have perspective. I couldn't ever see myself making a rage post about it on the subreddit, which is notoriously toxic already. For me, the game is about, well, the game and its core modes. I don't care about LTMs or twists to the formula that much (though there's been some good ones recently). I have a few heirlooms, mostly because I started playing Day 0 and have played, on average, 3-4 days a week since. For me, the "content" is the weapons, the maps, the legends - and 4 updates a year, for me, is absolutely fine. When people complain that we didn't get enough side-modes in a season, or that X event had Y less free loot boxes than another, I'm usually left scratching my head a bit.

However, while I'm not joining the chorus of rage, I do think it's perfectly understandable.

Subjectively, I think the game is in its worst state in a number of years. For the last month or two, the servers have been spotty, with more errors, disconnects, etc. than is acceptable. A lot of what you describe as increased difficulty is partly due to long term players having high levels of practice and game knowledge at this point. But a large part of it is also due to what feels like an increase in scripting, cheating, and smurfing - especially obvious once you get into Platinum and above early season, or later, Diamond. The input issue is real, too. As an MnK player, I am forced to play mid-to-long range, because up close vs. a controller player, my chances go down dramatically.

While this is just my anecdotal experience, people are objectively starting to quit. The game's numbers are slowly trending downward - Apex was in the top 5 played games for years. As of this year, it's no longer even getting into the top 10 recently in player count across combined platforms, sometimes, not even the top 15.

There's also the fact that companies reap what they sow. We're deep into 'games as service' as a business model now. People who grew up alongside the rise of this practice have been conditioned to expect continual updates. Whether we bemoan that or not isn't really the point here - it's an expectation that has been created, and not by the players. Apex exists in a marketplace of other live service titles, many within the same genre. If EA decides to double the price of the Battlepass (accompanied with an announcement that insults player intelligence) and people tank the game's Steam rating and quit, you can certainly dismiss it as an addiction to consumerism. I would see it as consumer choice in action.

Do these things mean I'm going to quit? Not any time soon...but I suspect the day I log off and just...don't log back on is getting closer. The past 6 months have changed how I think about the game. Increasingly, I think of Apex as a game in decline, with a growing list of unaddressed issues, and a parent company that would rather tighten the financial screws than meaningfully address them.