3 points
There’s a number of reasons that “it’s just cosmetic” is bullshit.
- Developer time and effort is limited. More effort on cosmetics is less time on other things.
- “free” cosmetics will intentionally be made worse than premium ones to drive conversions.
- the game loses the ability to reward impressive feats with cosmetics, as that harms sales.
- a non-zero amount of your time is spent being driven to purchase cosmetics.