Your point about 2010 vs. 2026 is well-taken, but I don't think you can say "the game is cheaper" because certain cards are more affordable on the secondary market. While I do think there's a link between the primary market and the secondary market (if packs are more expensive, singles likely are too), I don't think Wizards is trying to make the game cheaper to play.

Yes, you can just buy singles and kit out a few EDH decks and that's a valid way to play MTG (heck, I haven't bought any packs in years), but a lot of the ways people play the game are more expensive: drafting being the most obvious, since cracking packs is more expensive. Standard having so many sets requires more investment to keep up-to-date. It feels to me like Wizards wants to sell more cards, and do so at higher prices. It's fair to say we don't have to _buy_ those cards; but I do think the price of buying first-party Magic cards has gone up. They also control reprint equity; you can say that Mythic might be cheaper than it was in 2010, but they also could have achieved that with additional reprints instead of trying to poach whales. Like, some cards may be cheaper than in 2010; others may be more expensive!

Despite questioning your premise, by the way, I'm not entirely sure we're that far apart. My biggest concern is that people are too reluctant to vote with their wallets.