Paid gambling as a core mechanic is an automatic pass from me. FOMO manipulation is just gravy on the shit sandwich. It could be the best game ever and I'd still never play it because of how manipulative and greedy the game is. The game with monetization closest to Genshin I've played was LoL and I dropped that ages ago. I've moved on to quality shorter experiences, haven't regretted it for a moment.
I would happily spend that money on a complete game rather than spend $500 and get part of a game.
The game is thoroughly enjoyable after spending less than the cost of a AAA game. You're so obsessed with your own righteousness that you've stopped measuring a game's worth by how fun it is.
I just dismiss it because I hate the creepy anime maid upskirt aesthetic. I don't really care if the gameplay is good.
There's really not that much of it in the game!! I spent $40, got a handful of well-designed characters with interesting abilities that I could use to play all of the content in the game. Gender distribution seemed 50/50 or only very slightly female, and only a fraction of the characters are overtly sexualized.
I didn't care for Breath of the Wild so that's not dating much to me. I like Honkai Star Rail so I'm not surprised Genshin is good.
Lemmy ate my post body as I posted. It had a lot of justifications for the title but it's gone now. If this gets engagement I'll explain myself more.