I wonder if the direction they're going in recently is to cater to the Chinese market?i dont mind it in Elite because i am not forced to play with other players... also for single player games having flat out upgrades is par for the course (just like elite, elite 2 and 1st encounters had, as well as Dangerous and in the CRoberts camp wing commander and privateer has as well.
but given it looks like SC wont have any mitigation like that, and PvP is going to have an undodgeable component...i can see this being an issue.
mind you it is nothing new, the moment some ships had free life time insurance that was a problem imo.
The west seems pretty tired of Star Citizen now going by how skeptical random comments are.