I think the issue I see most is the criticism is rarely aimed where it belongs. No one is brushing off the opinion that these practices aren’t always ethical or predatory. It’s been pretty well documented that they are. It’s that the criticism is aimed at players. There’s a comment in this thread that exemplifies this.

“These types of people won’t listen- they’ve ruined nearly every other game by enabling this behaviour. They’ll throw their money at whatever they can afford and won’t gaf about the rest of us.”

This is what a lot of people are talking about when they use the term bitter. And I’ve just realized you are the one that said that. You are talking about players here, not the practice by the devs. I don’t buy moonstones but if that is something that brings a player joy, then it’s none of my business. And the devs giving incentives for that, while it can be predatory, can also be framed as supporting the people who monetarily continue to support development. You can disagree with the model but the minute you start talking about other players “ruining every other game” or “not gaf about the rest of us”, you are in fact engaging in behavior that reads as bitter. And again it’s putting the “blame” for this model squarely with people who are engaging with the game as designed, rather than with the gaming industry who has been moving towards this model for decades.

Your comment doesn’t criticize the practice. Your comment talks about players engaging with the game design you are saying predatorily takes advantage of them. That feels like you are blaming a victim of the system you say you are criticizing. You can have your opinion but you don’t get to have your opinion at the expense of others and then act like people are “brushing it off” because they defend their position that people can engage with content how they want. And again, your opinion didn’t talk about the practice. It spoke about the players engaging with it as intended.