So, lemme break it down question by question:
Question 2 - Can you play 3e yet? I feel that giving feedback based on secondhand sources (especially when a lot of said sources get their information from outdated gameplay) isn’t a good reason to suddenly be an expert. It’s actually incredibly easy to play the game outside of your region, so it’s worth giving the game a honest try first.
Complaint 1: Tell me, what level is your Punk Shocker? Using Cabbage-pult as an example, mine is at Level 10, while my Cab-Barrage is at Level 4, if memory serves. Barrage outdamages Cabbage. As the user above me said, things have changed drastically - spamming Tier 1 plants is no longer the play (and if your sources say otherwise, then that further proves my response to Question 2, in that you may be basing your opinions on outdated information). Levelling isn’t even as mandatory for progression as it was before. Yes, you’re making the game harder for yourself, but it also isn’t as brutally hard as it was prior to Title Update 0.5, by a long shot.
Complaint 2: As someone who is actively against Generative AI, I can tell you for a fact that the ads aren’t using AI. Compare a PvZ3 Evolved ad to its Chinese counterpart (which is well known for its AI usage at this point), then you’ll see the difference clear as day.
Complaint 3: They aren’t? Yes, you need to unlock them via the Plant Pass now when they’re in the pass, but you get the plant for free at Level 17, and if you miss the chance to get it, you can just unlock it using (Wild) Seeds. As already mentioned, these are handed to you on a silver platter and aren’t terrible to grind. Yes, I’m not keen on the premise (even as a P2W player myself), but that’s exactly why this is in Early Access: so they can test it with the Snow Conifer pass, see that people aren’t happy with the execution, then revert it for whoever is next.
Major Complaint: Let me be frank, you’re comparing apples to oranges here. You don’t exactly know how big PopCap are these days (since don’t forget, EA ≠ PopCap, just because EA owns PopCap doesn’t necessarily mean they have team members from other studios going over to PopCap o help with development), the example you gave are primarily companies who have been around for years (since the 80s for Nintendo, in terms of gaming, 90s for SEGA, and PocketPair’s PALWORLD is a completely different genre to Plants vs. Zombies, so that’s also not something that you can compare).
Anything else has already been summarised previously, but I’ll also add that it’s incredibly clear that the devs are being more transparent, telling us exactly what they’re doing and why and evidently being open to adjusting plans (case in point, Cold-slaw being both a hated and financially profitable pass. Rather than completely repeating history with Buzz Choy, they also added additional plants to that premium pass, rather than being Buzz Choy and its ingredients alone again), there’s even a whole segment in the blog posts now that spell out the plans to us.
