@zphvmiek34g0 Profits is the biggest reasoning behind making more cards untradeable. If you live and breathe Ultimate Team though and do Squad Battles + Rivals and finish high chances are you will be getting some nice packs.
I can't remember what year it was where getting great cards was quite easy and the market had like crashed where affording high end cards was cheap. IMO certain people complained about it causing cards to mean nothing so I guess EA decided to make things a bit harder.
I understand how you feel. I play for about 2 months then building the cards I want is no longer possible without spending money. They require too many components to build things which of course is by intention sadly.
We shall just have to wait n see how they deliver NHL 24 HUT to us and hope it will be easier to build a team.
