In mine opinion, microtransiction is scum to begin with, since it literally invasive tactics that tweaks with system to make extra cash. If DLC are mostly indeed "player's choice", Lootboxes and microtransiction are adding nothing on top just mess up system for no reason
You're really not understanding the concept of "predatory" and "coercion." If they don't mess up the system, then they aren't predatory, nor do they coerce, like in games where they end up completely ignored.
Let's not be naive. It's an excuse. If it truly was just about player choice, then they'd simply put in a secret cheat code or something that allows you to unlock all the moves or items.
It's not about player choice. It's about money, period. I know it, you know it, everyone knows it. And if people decide to encourage the greedy practice of charging for something that can very well be obtained through other, "free of charge" means, then yes, they are part of the problem.
Of course it's about money, they're a business and they
need to make money, that's why they're making games to sell. At
least if they're going to find new ways to make money, doing it without it actually affecting the core gameplay is like...begrudgingly acceptable. Like sure, not doing it at all is preferential, but there's only so much actual power we have as consumers, and they do have a right to create the game and implement what they see fit in order to see returns. I recently had someone actually say to me that "they make enough money as it is," and all I can say to that is "Holy ****, **** right off." What right does anyone have to tell a developer "they make enough money?"
As for games that use coercion, on that I can agree. But see, they're encouraged to make that kind of nastier microtransactions because they see that they get money from the first kind, so in their minds, why not pushing it further. Spend money on neither, and you'll see less and less of this practice, especially the more aggressive type.
Well, every game is different, and we already have instances of developers refraining from the nastier concepts. It's disingenuous to know the minds of every single developer and what they will do, almost to the point of being kind of insulting. Yes, don't spend money on them and we'll see less of them. Go for it, vote with our wallets, as is our choice. Yet, to say that a dev wouldn't realize that anything more than the innocuous versions they are already implementing is as far as the envelope can be pushed? That's just sorta disingenuous.