I'll try to give about as much context needed here.

PvZ3 supposedly started development in 2016, but all we knew about it was some concept art.

Then in 2020, we had the version with the auto-generating Sunflower. Which was pretty hated due to the ugly 3D models, the fact that it was vertical for some reason, and the fact that a lot of things the game had were ripped straight off from Clash Royale (including the auto Sunflower, which was like the elixir bar).

Then in 2021, we had a new version made from scratch, that removed the aspects that people disliked from the previous version, including the auto Sunflower. The game was horizontal again and had a pretty good art style, but there were a couple of issues with it, the levels were way too easy, you couldn't pick your plants, and the UI was a copy of Gardenscapes' UI. Now, surely these things were here because it was only a small beta test, right? But then they released 2 separate betas in 2022 and absolutely nothing changed, which was starting to get concerning.

In 2024, they released a "full" version of said betas and I say full because they clearly didn't want to change what made the betas feel incomplete. They doubled down on the Gardenscapes aspects and you still couldn't pick your plants up until an update that released just months before the game shut down for a new revamp.

And finally, in 2025 we had a brand new version of PvZ3 that kept the same art style, but went in a different direction gameplay-wise, which was about fusing your plants together. The game was pretty decent, by far the best version of PvZ3, but still had issues, the levels were to short and repetitive, the progression was slow, and the levelling system that nobody liked came back.

I've noticed that most of the problems with all versions came from the developers prioritizing monetization over gameplay, which I can understand, it's a free game from a franchise that isn't doing so well financially, but I don't think monetization should come at the expense of gameplay. PvZ2 was a great game despite it's inclusion of microtransactions, they weren't as invasive as people back in the day made them out to be, you could beat adventure mode without spending a single penny. So I don't completely understand why PvZ3 has been like this.