devtrackers.gg
They do not target normal whales but the 0.1% rich or financially irresponsible super high spenders
Financially irresponsible // addicts.
It's important not to fall for the propaganda on this; FTP economies are about exploiting people with gambling problems or impulse spenders, using slow progress as a beat stick to get them to open their wallets. The people they hit are not 100k per month financially well off people, it's normal folk on standard jobs with a psychological predilection for this kind of manipulation.
(yes you do highlight this in your bullet point; I just wanted to underline it)
It’s tempting to assume that people who buy things we don’t value have a mental illness, but most people who buy expensive rare wines for their wine cellars are not alcoholics. They’re wealthy people who really like wine and like collecting it as a hobby. The same goes for most large spending in f2p games.
It doesn’t even have to be super-rich: If you have a high paying job, no family to support, and you don’t care about golfing or country club memberships or building model trains or warhammer 40k or collecting stamps or collecting wine or raising horses, but you do love playing this one game, often you think “yeah, I’d like to buy something here. I’ve got the money and I’ve been looking for something fun to spend it on. This is the game I play, why not get some extra cool stuff for it? I could buy another $70 game but I have a massive steam backlog and game pass subscription already, I don’t particularly want to play a different game right now. I want to keep playing this one and I’d like that cool new toy for it.”