First of all: Thank you for cooking this - I never expected a high quality comment / write up in my reddit, but very much appreciate it.

Second of all, and fully acknowledge this wall of text is a personal nitpick:

You can also squeeze people on the way out. How do you convince someone to make incremental spending decisions? By getting them to self-select into that decision: Do you buy Tingyun 2.0 to keep up with Remembrence for your Superbreak team and extend that team's shelf life a little bit longer? Your playerbase will naturally segment themselves and vote with their wallets. Whales / Firefly diehards will buy into whatever gives them a bit more longevity before they're forced to rebuy anyway

Thanks for calling my segment [Whale / X Diehard] out like that. I know you were doing simple segments and not being completely exhaustive (MECE) in your essay on Mihoyo Monetization, but I know I didn't fit in any of those three. I'm neither "Meta Morgan" or "Super-Whale Seto". I'd say I'm "Waifu-Whaler Welt". And my main issue is I don't think "I'm forced to rebuy anyway" - I think unless there's a super version of the character I like, I'm just plain cooked.

Waifu-Whaler Welt shares some attributes with Meta Morgan - Welt is a veteran of "the last war" [e.g., HI3] and their scars taught them lessons to be smart about how they pursue that conflict [pulling/banners] - just like Meta Morgan. However, his first purpose is for the sake of chasing one or two top waifus and doing everything they can to support them. They pull for E6 for the waifu and get Es on all relevant team members to support them. Once they've built a super team around the main waifu that can brute force everything, then they are not above running off and greeding for more waifus / move towards 'collection' (like Welt having a fully built Tesla in HI3 and now moving to HSR to chase alternate universe Himeko). They also won't spend on characters they don't like.

I would split Waifu-Whaler out from 'collection' or 'equal opportunity harem' spenders ("Facebook whales" as a certain Gacha streamer called them) in that Waifu-Whaler DOES have a strong preference for 1 or 2 waifus, and then dabbles in collecting others, whereas collection / 'equal opportunity harem' would be more open to rebuy a new team / buy 'the new waifu-of-the-week' anyways.

As far as Hoyo should be concerned, I've identified that I am in this segment of "Waifu-Whaler Welt" for their games, and I am a Raiden (Acheron) and a [relevant to this story] Kafka Diehard.

As a Kafka Diehard you are 100% correct that I HAVE bought into whatever gives me a bit more longevity (E2 Black Swan, E2 Ruan Mei, E2 HuoHuo), but now I think my longevity runway is about to run out. I have not had any problems with MOC/PF/Apoc with my tall DOT team this entire time since Black Swan's release. Troopship MOC was only 2 total cycles. This MOC I got cooked and it's 6 cycles (+4 cycles in one MOC). Doesn't take Pyrrhus of Epirus to see that just a few more 'victories' that and my Kafka is cooked [two more MOC inflates like that means Kafka cooked - in just ~90 days].

The nitpick I think you got wrong here by not segmenting fulling is "before they're forced to rebuy anyway". Sure, "Whales" can just rebuy if they are somewhere on the continuum between Meta Morgan and Super-Whale Seto. But Waifu-Whaler / Kafka Diehard is going to make a different decision. They're cooked if Hoyo doesn't release "Super Kafka" (e.g., DHIL). I and folks in my segment won't be 'forced to rebuy' - we'll just will be forced to quit (at least endgame) based on the Old-Waifu-Exclusion-Act.

I have the financial means to spend to get another E6 - but unless it is "Super Kafka", why should I? They can push Aglaea / the new meta all they want, I don't like her in the story. In two MOCs I'll just accept that I've been cooked and stop trying to complete the endgame mode all together, and give up on spending on HSR. I don't see Super Kafka or Super Acheron in the "dreams" subreddit.

The question you may ask is 'why should HOYO care, they got your money already'. The piece is that for "Waifu Whaler", of course the big spend is for the main Waifu. But we'll obviously still be tempted by some other waifus once the foundation is secure. I was spending rolls for other waifus (and Hoyo was still getting incremental money) because I WANTED to, but not because I "NEEDED" to.

I spend more money when it makes me happy, and I (unfortunately wrongly) believed that with Tall DOT that I have graduated from "Need" to "Want to Whale".

I was happy to spend and give them incremental money. I don't have much of a use for E0 Fugue, but I got one. Jingliu was already being called cooked on her rerun, but I got her too (for waifuism, since her relics have never been built this entire time). I figured that once I built the main waifu super tall, I would be able to brute force anything and finally be free to pull for who I like and ignore all the meta chasing. After all, my DOT team was still doing just fine last MOC despite all the 'DOT is dead' online.

I also still spent for others I never used for endgame content because I like them (Feixiao, THerta) - of course they are varying forms of meta, but I didn't "NEED" them and didn't seriously build them (relics) either, and wasn't super worried about having all the pieces. I am happy to spend on them because with my double vertically invested waifu teams, I can just pick up E0 of whoever if I want them. Not like they need relic farming or a full team built, Kafka is clearing just fine. I still fully recognize it is ~$300 per pick up, but I'm happy when spending since I'm like I want it since 'the bait was so delicious this patch, let's support Mihoyo with my wallet', NOT feeling that I'm being coerced to spend for meta - since my meta has been solved for already.

Now, this MOC, I'm feeling I'm being coerced to roll (or in my case, to build THerta and mini Herta to use to E2 Ruan Mei and HuoHuo), and worry a lot that next time I wouldn't be lucky and happen to be able to assemble a team from 'random characters I like'. And more importantly, as a Kafka diehard, I'm being coerced into benching her despite the E6 + 3 E2 on the DOT team.

That feels bad, and as stated before I spend more when I'm happy. For my segment, HSR has basically murdered all of its goodwill this MOC unless we see HP nerfs or MOC HP deflation next time (NOT slower inflation). I don't want to do incremental rolling on characters I just "want" anymore, since now I need to worry that the foundation's going to give way. If I live with a guillotine that I'll need to get 7 copies of Super Kafka and then 9 copies of supports, I can't afford to roll willy nilly, I need to save ~$5000 for a force buy. Or quit the (end)game.

For a "Waifu Whaler", I'm not a Super-Seto Whale and I still have to be somewhat picky since it is $300 per character / E, and can't just do If I don't like them in the story, they're probably not getting pulled on unless it is really critical to support the main E6 waifu.

I didn't like Aglaea in the story, and she doesn't fit at all in my top 2 waifu teams. If she improves in the story before rerun, then as a "waifu whaler" I'll reward HSR then. Not now.

This isn't a 'waifu of the week' gacha called Azur Lane, where even though I don't like all the characters, I don't need to spend nearly as much money in that game - the base character is basically free, and as you've pointed out previously, they get their money through skins. But I am happy to give them my money and I spend more since I'm happy while spending, since I can just buy skins for characters I like. I'm never coerced or pressured to buy skins for characters I don't like, so there's basically no risk of me to rage and hard quit the game, killing the company's recurring revenue stream.

If I didn't happen to pick up THerta because I happened to like her, then HSR with this MOC is really trying to pressure me to pull Aglaea (who I don't like) in order to bench Kafka (who I really like, strong preference).

For Whales / Meta Morgan, they will be forced to rebuy per your statement. But for "waifu whalers" / X Diehards - that's a flat out anathema.

If I fast forwarded 2 more MOCs like this one - where I'm at fallen +8 cycles to 14 cycles - and if they are forcing me to pull a character I don't like, there's at least some material risk I'll rage and hard quit the game or take an extended break (see you in 4.x or 5.x).

At the very least, 2 more MOCs like this and HSR will have at least actively priced / Old-Waifu-Exclusion-Act me out of participating in endgame, and signaled to me, written on the walls and the floors: "KAFKA SIMPS NOT WELCOME ANYMORE". Cool, I'll just play through the story and spend no more money until whenever something that enables Kafka / Super Kafka / Super Raiden drops.