Here's my take .... I'm an adult, I work for anything I want to buy.
I have very little hobbies or interests that cost me money, I create CC for TS4 because that is my "hobby" which cost me nothing besides the initial investment of the base game almost 7 years ago, yet it has brought me lots of joy by feeding my creative juices, both inside the game ... by building houses, creating sims, playing out stories, or outside the game by modeling 3D assets and creating textures for those assets and enjoying seeing my own creations inside my game.
So, my point is .... I don't follow what other people tell me how/if I should or shouldn't spend my money on.
Back when I used to frequent bars many days a week, it was nothing for me to spend over $100 a night with absolutely nothing to show for it (besides a hangover the next day sometimes).
So if I want to spend the same amount of money for a "kit" for my game as I would on a cup of coffee or latte at some fancy cafe, then I will. At least the money spent on the "kit" I will still get enjoyment from it for years to come if I choose to keep playing TS4 (or any other game I invest in), unlike that cup of coffee that was gone within hours.
If you add up the base game plus all of the DLC I own, if it was bought at full price (which most of them I waited for a sale) and I own everything except for Batuu, that comes out to:
Basegame: $40
10 EPs @ $40 each = 400
8 GPs @ $20 each = $160
18 SPs @ $10 each = $180
Total: $780
$780 Divided by 6.5 years: $120 a year
$120 Divided by 12 months = $10 a month
$10 Divided by 30 days average in a month = $0.3333 a day
I don't know of very many things you can get enjoyment out of that only costs $0.3333 a day.
For me the "kits" might be a good idea and a cheaper way to go for some things, I don't use a lot of the stuff that comes in packs but I buy the packs because there are things that I can/will use. So, if there are kits that I think I will use the majority of things in it, then that's worth it to me.
I am one of the rare people who didn't mind the TS3 store, I actually liked the option of being able to pick and choose what I wanted without being forced to buy an entire pack just because I liked a plant or a lamp.
Now ... am I happy with the formula that TS4 does things with smaller packs and content split up into more packs compared to the previous games? Absolutely not! And, I will always feel like what we get for our money now (and probably going forward for any new games in the future) compared to what we got in TS2 and TS3 is a complete and utter rip off!
But for me (because I don't play many other games regularly, I am stuck with how they do things.) I'm not going to "cut off my nose to spite my face" and boycott buying stuff from EA just because I don't like how they are doing things with this iteration. And until another Life Simulation game is released and there are other smiliar games to play, "boycotting" is not an option because that would make my life less enjoyable in my free time.
