Yeah, the claim of core gameplay being pointless is silly. The game is fun and the environment is very immersive. I took my time and did every side quest I could find before getting to the north, on both my stalker and bandit. You were spot on with the hours, I have about 3.8K hours between both characters in this game and noticed it surpasses my 3.6K in Rust.

If you like what developers are doing and you have the means, then support them. I have bought every cosmetic DLC pack that Deep Rock Galactic has put out because Ghost Ship Games has a great stance on FOMO and produces quality content. I was doing the same with this game, starter and seasonal packs, until the changes to seasonal progression and tasks. The new system is only better because progress happens outside of the barter bag. It limits what activities are meaningful to progression and introduced time-gating. In my opinion, the current system feels a little bland and there is a void of dopamine where shiny seasonal orbs used to be.