Yeah, but it’s a sustainable model that allows for longtime development and product lifetime. It’s also completely voluntary since base + utopia + synthetic dawn are 85% of all worthwhile content on their own
Like, microtransactions are garbage, but the industry has shifted to a point where you’re out if you don’t have a long term payment model. The paradox model at least puts a cap on what the whales can pay, and actually gives them more content in return.
It’s the least bad model out there. At least for companies too big to pull a factorio/terraria