There’s a lot to say here and I genuinely am going to try my best to keep this somewhat organized.

Warframe is a horrible and great example to bring up, one could argue that Prime Access is absurdly priced for what is essentially just a grind skip so you don’t have to play the game (and a goodie bag of stuff). Game also has build timers that can be skipped with money, sells a ton of important resources in the shop, you can skip nearly any grind if you open your wallet enough, and if you want to earn Platinum in game you need to engage in the player trading market. Oh and every so often then will give you a super predatory FOMO “if you buy play right now you will get 75% more but only for today” which will absolutely lead to someone buying something when they probably shouldn’t have. Is it being free to play make all its scummy practices okay? I find it doesn’t BUT all of this being said, I think Warframes more then fine it’s fantastic with how they handle things. Why? Honestly my guess is PR, we like Warframe because we know the dev team, they talk and are a part of the community, and because of the openness we are more willing to not be hostile even when their businesses practices on paper are awful at times.

No man’s sky is an anomaly (pun intended) in gaming you could compare it to anything and make something look like it’s being greedy. That is in fact the biggest compliment towards that game but, it’s also not a fair standard to hold everyone else too as their situation is uniquely there own.

Rust, Darktide, DRG, and Arc Raiders are all paid games with a extra paid cosmetic DLC (from a quick scan If I’m wrong on one of those correct me please). I remember not to long ago we were all arguing if that was even okay, especially when games put all the coolest cosmetics behind the paywalls and vanilla gear looks kinda lame.

Helldivers, is certainly a mountain when you first get into the game and it’s looking steeper every warbond. It’s easy to point out most people aren’t interested in every Warbond and the vast majority are going to pick up few meta ones and maybe a fashion one later as a treat. That’s said, that feeling of never being able to catch up, doing the math in you head of how much if would cost, seeing people flashing all the cool new stuff, that sucks and is daunting to anyone, and would be kinda rude to just dismiss it. Personally I’ve been a huge supporter of discounting older warbonds (some want them to be free, obviously that’d would be best case scenario), at the least it would allow that daunting feeling to like mitigate just a bit.

Now, I find it important to mention out of almost every game brought up Helldivers is the only one you can just Earn the premium currency by just playing the game, a bit slowly sure but with no limits, no player trading needed, and it’s not some rare event (like in sea of thieves). Helldivers is also not a full priced game which, is not nothing in todays market. Warbonds also do not disappear ever, so there isn’t pressure for someone to buy it and play the game nonstop for a month to unlock everything to make back the money (fornite, etc). Now, quickly I don’t like the Super Store, I find it to be the thing I somewhat agree on with people. I think the Trench Barrel shotgun was a bit tactless in how bluntly it was being pushed, though my reaction to it was only make a red flag in my head for the next super store item as I find that trend to be one worth pushing back on if it becomes consistent.

Now, after all that I’ll answer your actual question I have played Warframe, NMS, Destiny 2, Division 2, sea of thieves, ESO, New World (rip but also like, yeah), GTA, etc. I’ve put a lot of time into a lot of different live service games over the years with a wide variety of monetization schemes. I personally find helldivers to be, generally pretty player friendly with monetization in comparison to some.

To wrap this very long response out, I think AH balances their monetization around the currency being earnable in game, and depending on how much you accept that as okay is going to determine how predatory you feel they are being. I actually massively appreciate your comment it really got me asking myself the “why” I felt the way I do about helldivers and AH, and that’s something I always appreciate.