That’s a lot fairer and makes a lot more sense than what I was imagining. Although I’m still a little wary of the devs designing a purposefully limited time-intensive system, and the publishers then dangling a paid solution in front of players. Even when it’s just a part of the solution.
From my understanding, the game doesn’t lack fast travel, the resources for it are just incredibly rare unless you use micro-transactions.
IRL, the trick is to only bother if you know they’re very open-minded or are part of a tight-knit open-minded community. But that would usually mean you’d have to find a solution to the “making close friends as an adult” part too.
It’s more complicated than anger for me. There’s the disappointment that they’ve sunk so far, worry that other programs that I use could follow, but also some relief that I switched when I did.