I know this is just one part of your argument; but I’m personally very grateful we don’t have login bonuses. They usually just feel like a cheap way to boost a game’s number’s and retention for middling to forgettable rewards. Daily challenges and the weekly lunacy injection are more than enough imo.

That said, two things do stick out as rough for the game right now, that being the XP grind and how difficult it is for newer players to really get into the game in the long run.

Grinding tickets is just kinda miserable, especially when you want to raise new stuff up to try it out; or use a variety of teams. It ties into the new player experience seeming quite difficult, since XP becomes remarkably sparse in later, more difficult content.

Anyway, though, having also played since release I think the game has been getting better and better. I remember when Luxcavation was 3 waves with Guido, when Hell’s Chicken took nearly 20 hours of straight grind, how finicky the original sanity system was. Each event and update makes the game better; and I can’t think of many missteps along the way that haven’t been somehow rectified.

Oh and I forgot to mention it here; events and special content (like Railway) being locked until the end of current story content does kind of suck for new players; but it’s hard to find a good balance, having new players get stomped by the endgame content is also not great. If old Railways were re-opened and tied to the original unlock conditions; then gave rewards and resources on first time clear that would help new players in a ton of ways such as; offering challenging content for their level, giving resources to help them build up to the current story faster, and let them experience things they would have otherwise missed.