This IGN article comforted me somewhat (Destiny)

by SonofMacPhisto , Thursday, September 15, 2016, 17:01 (2789 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

I firmly believe they will continue to push the limit until they break things completely. Why wouldn't they?

The logical answer: because they know if they push it too far they will push away loyal players. There is a line before the actual pay to win line that is too far for consumers, especially for a game that you pay money for up front, and for each expansion, and we are still even a long ways away from that line.

By the way I went and checked, it's 10% not 20%, I fixed my post, but you respond to quickly ;)

And my entire point is that they won't know how far is "too far" until they hit it. And for every well-intentioned designer at Bungie, there is someone else (either within the company or within Activision) who is looking at growth potential and new potential revenue streams who is saying "how can we get a little more money this year than we made last year?".

I don't think I'm being wildly negative here... This is just common business practices, as I see it.

Between the well-intentioned designer and the person-who-actually-controls-the-money is there really any doubt where this is going? We shouldn't expect any decisions that won't support maximum return on such a huge investment. If we get any in favor of the designer I can say with some confidence they are a happy accident.