OP is right, and people have been saying this for a long time. Frontier does not need to nickel and dime us as hard as they do. We paid full AAA title money for this game, many of us paid full price for Horizons as well, and with that it is not unreasonable to expect there to be some basic level of customization included in that price.
Frontier is trading long term reputation for short term cash and it feels so unnecessary.
We could have basic colors included in the game and Frontier would not go bankrupt or be struggling financially all of a sudden. We could sell skins individually and the same would still be true. The major difference is that players would feel like they got better value for their money and would be more likely to become repeat buyers. They would also be more likely to support the system and speak highly of it to others in the community.
Instead, the lack of any meaningful free customization pushes new players away and discourages repeat purchases once people figure out that they have to buy 5 skins they don't want to get one that they do (why do you think so many people are canceling their cable TV subscriptions these days? Sound familiar?)
On a broader scale, this is a consumer problem.
To put it simply,
- Businesses want to provided the minimum possible value for the maximum possible profit.
- Consumers want maximum value for the minimum possible cost.
It is not our job as consumers to defend a business who wants to offer less value for money just because we don't care about that particular product (eg, cosmetics). Let the business do that for themselves.
In fact, it is very much our divided opinion that allows companies to simply sit back and take no action whilst we bicker amongst ourselves. All they have to do is point at the people calling OP an entitled whiner or whatever and say "See? The community is fine with it!"
So even if you don't give a rat's about cosmetic microtransactions and how they are implemented, let Frontier defend their own position on the matter instead of doing it for them. Having access to basic colors in-game for credits is not going to make the game worse, so why oppose it so strongly?
If you're worried about Frontier's financials then again, let Frontier speak to that. Don't just make up a claim that Frontier can't continue developing the game without the money from basic color skin packs.
If you want to say "Then don't claim they don't need that money because you don't know!" we have plenty of examples already in this thread from other developers who offer this sort of content for free and are doing just fine - many of them also give the game itself away for free, while this is a full priced AAA title with a season pass available and more on the way. If Frontier cannot do the same for whatever reason, let them speak to it.
