It would be just as insincere to say that the games have been designed to instill desire to reach the power cap for the players. For people with a tendency toward gambling addiction, or toward the addictive qualities of Diablo's item game -and, perhaps, both -- the legendary crest system can be extremely harmful and can be very exploitative.
For the rest of us this makes Diablo less fun.
There was a time when we were here or at least, somewhere similar to it. When Diablo 3 came out in 2012, it had an auction house in real money that players could purchase and sell their drops. The theory behind it was to head off the cheating and scamming that beset players on Diablo 2. However, to guide players to Auction House, Blizzard lowered loot drop rates in the game to an degree that acquiring a character with a weapon became a tedious chore and the game a whole felt unrewarding to play. When the unpopular auction house was eliminated and drop rates were raised in 2014, Diablo 3 instantly became more enjoyable, even before the improvements of The Reaper of Souls expansion raised it to legendary status.
This is the point: it may make sense on paper to attempt to make money from Diablo's treasure, but as soon as you do, you drain the fun out of the game. This is the same for Diablo Immortal, and it's apparent before you hit the endgame, due to the fact that it is a fundamental part of the game's gameplay. Drops of loot aren't as effective while character progression is artificially controlled and spread over too many games, that are rough and coarse. It's more carefully concealed than it was during the launch of Diablo 3, but it's similar to a boring and boring game. purchasing a battle pass, or paying a huge sum for legendary crests does nothing to get an excellent item drop isn't as exciting as just finding one.
I'm unsure if there is a way to separate the core elements that make Diablo fun from the mechanics of free-to-play commercialization. If there such a thing, Blizzard and NetEase have not yet found it. They've created a mobile-friendly Diablo that is slick, enjoyable, and even spacious at first. If you're spending enough time with it, there's no doubt that the heart of Diablo has been cut out, chopped up, and then sold back to you piecemeal.
