Seriously SE???

[Nominous]

If this is "just how it is" there is a major problem.

I understand the frustration. This in particular is a small problem in the bigger picture of what you seem to be annoyed with.

All of the stuff you mentioned is just a part of gaming in the course of natural evolution. The internet/information generation changed a lot of things, and it changed a lot in gaming as well, arguably not for the better. It changed every form of entertainment. Music, Movies, Art, Novels, almost everything you can think of. With information so readily available, the issues that you mentioned were bound to come up. Issues that would have never been the spotlight of the community, were made big deals because it's immortalized on the internet. Gaming Journalism became so big that it made the idea of print magazines almost inefficient or obsolete in terms of getting information. Pirating became rampant. All sorts of 'bad' things.

All the other stuff is just like I said, how the world is, not gaming. If you haven't noticed by now, everything around you works on the same principles. We're nickled and dimed wherever we can be, because that's how businesses work. There's always a new trinket or new feature you can add to something for extra (DLC ideas), there's always 'optional' bonuses you can add to existing services (HBO/SHOtime, HD for cable, warranties for things, the list goes on). There's always overcharging for things that should be cheap. Stuff that you buy isn't always what's promised, sometimes it's bugged or defective.

For me, this is why I can cope with gaming being the way it is now. It's just kind of taking it's natural course of changes. Until there's a ton of radical companies that set the bar ridiculously high, without any of these practices being implemented, there won't be any reason for other companies not to.