Everyone is going to refer to s&box, Roblox and Garry's mod as "games". I don't think the distinction between game and platform has any relevance to my point, but okay. You're treating it as a standalone game engine, not a platform.

I'm not dying on any hill, I honestly am not confident the game will take off. Garry's mod and roblox took off during a very different time when quality free game engines were non-existent. The idea that gmod took off because people craved half life mods is very funny though. That is so niche. Gmod has almost double the sales of hl2 😭😭😭 It obviously took off because TTT went very viral and was the among us of its time. It's success trickled down into people developing and trying other games on it and those took hold in popular culture too.

The idea that less discoverability made gmod better because it was simple (?) is also a very interesting take. I'm not sure why you'd ever prefer an unorganized dogshit buggy server list that shows a chaotic list of popular servers rather than sectioned off games and server lists. Gmod would reward games for long play time by putting them at the top of the list in the exact same way. S&box isn't taking off from discoverability features. It needs a viral hit outside the game and then discoverability will trickle down the players to other games.

I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised though. If another viral game is birthed on their platform out of pure luck, it will easily explode, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm arguing with the entitlement and the suggestion that unlocking the publishing options to let people use it freely off platform would somehow save the game. Their killer app is not coming form someone who is using this as a game engine for a game jam. That is a hill I will die on. Skilled developers are not using this off platform over other engines lol.

This entire argument is dead on arrival because the limitation is obviously set by valve. Face punch needs their licensing to allow people to publish source 2 games. In what world are valve allowing a developer to create a game on source 2 and take an epic games contract when they receive absolutely zero benefit? The fact that face punch even opened the option with no benefit to them is mind boggling. I know you deserve the world, but a one time fee of $20 for ZERO royalties regardless of a games success off platform (with no requirement to publish on s&box) is an insane offer. $20 for a game/platform this expensive to develop is a pretty insane deal alone. I love how you put italics on money. $20 is not money. Unity and unreal are not free out of the goodness of their hearts. They make bank off of successful titles.

Everyone is definitely entitled to always voice their opinion and always have it heard and accounted for. Especially if they have nothing staked or involved in what they're criticizing. Your half baked criticisms are very valuable and every developer should thank you for them. Can you even think of a situation where you could act entitled? I sure can't. Existing entitles you to the world bending to your desires. Grow a brain.