Why are pre set builds a thing . Pay to win

Every single build in WoC EASHL was able to be earned for free.  There is no pay to win in the slightest when it comes to WoC.

As I have said elsewhere. Pre set builds are great for the casual EASHL players that just want to get on and play, avoiding any setting up of their players stats, attributes, xfactors etc.... and yeah like Kla says, they are all free to get during that season of play by playing one and in the rare case, maybe two games throughout a 50 day season. Its only bought if for the skin that comes with it.

Did u play 24 ? You had to buy them . Only way to get bones build to buy it with your earned money. After you’ve payed 80$+ . Your good with that ? They said no elite edges in nhl 25 . Instead they give us a 6”6 player with gold edges. Correct me if im wrong but when you’re that tall in real life agility on a dime is not an option. Dont defend this company. They made 7.2 Billion  last year  ALONE and this is the level of effort we get . I tried harder in kindergarten . 

Yes I played 24 and each season you could unlock for FREE the prebuilt builds.  Would you like me to take screenshots of all the builds and show that i have 0 of the skins?  And just because EA as a whole makes "x" money doesn't mean the NHL team gets funded more.  They have budgets.  Also my team doesn't have problems beating prebuilt builds.

You did not have to buy them... all you had to do was reach LEVEL 2 in the FREE part of the pass last year. If you missed out on them, then yes you can buy them at that point but you know what? They are a business and in this day of gaming, this is just part of the live service models that many games run. Similar with the skins. Now do I think that they should be giving these exiled abilities on the prebuilds? No they probably shouldn't be giving things like wheels and EE etc. when they were taken out of the game. That being said, those builds all have downsides to them... (maybe Agent Blueline is the outlier) that make them really not viable to use vs custom builds.

And yes Electronic Arts made 7.2 billion last year, which runs games like Apex Legends, Battlefield, etc. That's the games that are making that money. EA Sports Vancouver is a tiny company that makes NHL and have nowhere even close the resources to spend with an expectation of profit back from the consumer.

You pay for the cosmetic part, like the character that they make for the loadout but you don't have to pay to use the loadout on a created skater. Tbh though i feel like they need to either redo the loadouts or remove them, at least the ones that have abilities that you cannot get on your created skater like elite edges, wheels, steady strides etc. They were removed from WOC for a specific reason.

You could pay for the cosmetic part to put onto your character iirc, but the actual builds were essentially free (like, the first or second unlocked tier in the "battle pass")