This right here. I think the popularity of Battlebit proves this point. If devs make a game that they themselves would want to play, they create a great game. If the game is made via committee and how much profits the suits can squeeze out of it there is a good chance the game sucks.

While that’s self-evidently true for some of Infinite, Halo also actively avoided a lot of the dark patterns that would’ve kept people playing. It was, unfortunately, kind of the worst of both worlds. The battle passes stick around forever, events repeat, almost all externally-advertised cosmetics were free. It’s supposed to be a system that works for the players, and it more or less does (in comparison to, say, Fortnite), but it also means that you don’t have a reason to sign back in every single day and grind through something to get enough currency to buy the new skin you like, and most people aren’t financially investing themself much in playing it.