Poker is a gambling game. Balatro is loosely based on poker. Throw in some additional luck/randomness and change the money aspect to points. Gambling and addiction in general are devastating.
It would be interesting to compare brain activity of a gambling addict at the casino with a dedicated balatro player. I have my suspicions about what we would see.
Ultra realism mode should involve a boomer with piss on the front of their pants squawking about chrome being slow while you’re under a rack fixing a punch down. In the background, your phone rings. It’s a middle manager placed by an investment firm asking if you reset the modem yet.