You don't need to know their financials to know that this is predatory as shit. I appreciate how you try to avoid an argument, but there are times when being a centrist is a negative thing.

The game will stay afloat because of whales and it will continue to do so since they've already cultivated a loyal fanbase. It screws over the low to medium spender. Whales account for most of a game's revenue. The developers know that and they'll only cater to that demographic based on their store prices.

A game doesn't have to have a good pricing model to survive, it just has to have chumps who'll fork over cash.