Then they did it at every other fucking company because it was industry standard.
All you’ve listed are the big publishers. Of course THEY are going to do it. They are publicly traded company’s where they need to draw blood from a stone and pull out as much value as possible to appease their shareholders.
You’re absolutely wrong about every company doing this. It sounds like your only experience is AAA titles.
Play some indie games and you’ll see the difference. Significantly better designed games, built from passion, and without all the bullshit you see with AAA games.
Like I said find a better pool where people aren’t pissing in them. They exist.
I used recognizable names, including respected names such as fromsoft and supergiant which aren’t even doing it. The point I was trying to make was that the more normal and accepted it becomes, the more it will be done and it might eventually become the norm. Like the YouTube title/thumbnail trend. “We have to do it because of the algorithm! We don’t make money otherwise”