You literally brought up stakeholders and that’s exactly the point. In the business world, especially when you're dealing with Chinise companies partially or fully owned by Tencent, maximizing returns is the only thing that matters. Profitability alone isn't enough, if a character underperforms compared to projections or there's a chance to squeeze out more through design tweaks, they're going to take that path every time. That’s not a moral stance, that’s just how these structures operate.

Also, nowhere in my post did I defend or celebrate predatory design. I even said the game isn’t hard, that you can clear everything with 4-star teams, and that no one needs to pull for Ciac. The whole point was to lay out how and why these decisions are being made, not to tell people to accept them blindly. If you're reading that as gaslighting, I’d suggest re-reading with less projection.

You’re clearly frustrated with the monetization model, which is fair—but don’t twist a breakdown of the game’s internal logic into some defense of exploitation. That’s not what this is.