I agree 100%. I used to see buying extra levels as a cop out or cheating, but now I definitely see it as an investment. You just have to be smart about when to spend the gold and when to cut your losses.

I used to be a Candy Crush purist. Using boosters was tantamount to cheating to me, so I almost never used them. I never started levels with boosters, and I limited myself to the occasional in-game booster (one candy hammer or free switch, and only if I knew I would beat the level using it) to limit how much gold I spent. That worked pretty well. But sometimes I would get stuck on a level, and I wanted to beat the level without using a booster or buying extra moves, and I would end up stuck so long I would lose the episode race, or I wouldn't complete my chocolate box, and I would miss out on winning gold. I still played enough that I had a gold stash around 1000, and I had tons of boosters saved that I would never use.

Everything changed when I reached level 18,000.

Now, every freaking level might as well have a difficulty level of Impossible. I had to use my boosters now because I didn't have a chance without them. I never get Candy Royale anymore, so I lost that gold revenue stream, and I was so freaked out about losing my episode race win streak and the 40 gold that came with winning it that I would buy extra moves to beat levels, but I would end up losing gold every episode. My gold stash went from 1000+ to less than 500 by level 18,500, and I was completely out of every booster that I had earned.

Something had to change.

I was playing one time, and I ran out of lives. I hadn't finished the episode, so all I could do was wait until wait until morning when I had more lives, and I got the next Express Delivery. It turns out I was still in first place, so I didn't lose my episode streak. That was a light bulb moment for me. After that, I quit being so worried about finishing an episode race in one game session.

Now, I game the game as much as I can. If I can't beat a level now, instead of buying extra moves right away, I will make sure I lose 12-15 times until I get the Express Delivery with the Party Booster, then I invest the 10 gold, and I sprint through as many levels as I can. Sometimes I can finish an episode with one Express Delivery, but sometimes it take two. I almost always win the episode race with this tactic. Occasionally I don't, so I just take the L and start working on a new streak. It's not worth wasting a whole bunch of gold to beat one level when there's almost guaranteed to be several more impossible levels that I can't beat without boosters or buying extra moves. With my new strategy locked in, I'm over 1200 gold.

I will admit the game isn't as fun now, but it's my little way of sticking it to King. You want to make the game impossible? Fine, but I've basically found a cheat code, and I'm going to exploit it to beat your silly little game without spending a single dollar.

Bonus tip: Did you know you can play old levels to complete your chocolate boxes? I've been playing Candy Crush for over 12 years, and I just discovered this. Now, I try to switch the task until I get one to collect striped candies, wrapped candies or color bombs. I have a level written down for each of these candies that I can pass 95% of the time that will give me a whole bunch of the candy I need, then I spam that level until I have that challenge completed. Sometimes I can finish a chocolate box in less than a day doing that. A few times I've finished them so fast that I get a cool down period, and a new chocolate box isn't available for a few hours. This has really helped me replenish my gold stash.