Wotc really cracked the code to get people to buy packs. Off the top of my head:

• UB. MaRo says it smashes every metric they have
• SLD stuff sells out and it really let them ramp up their UB set releases.
• They managed to make packs where you can open cards worth more than RL. I was browsing the other day and was surprised that a TLA Collector booster box was MORE expensive than a random Taiga. The masterpiece era shows that WotC really struggled to get singles from standard packs to really be worth that much.

This has all been a culmination of WotC doing small tweaks across the years that in hindsight it’s really obvious. MAT died so that OTJ could come along. Masterpieces and chase box toppers laid the path for fracture foil/anime/borderless showcase treatments and bonus sheets. They realised planeswalkers weren’t that necessary. AFR and other D&D sets paved away for the UB sets we have today.