This is just appalling

[Kaurie]

Reminds me of my cousins. They constantly got on my case for my occasional splurges on video game stuff yet saw nothing wrong spending hundreds of dollars drinking. Both are optional things we do for fun. Money is relative and subjective. What one thinks is silly and overpriced, another won't care and is simply happy to have it.

Conversely, there are plenty of people who find small purchases to be no big deal, but then when it's all added up, the totals are astronomical. There are plenty of stories of people who paid for cheap in-app purchases on mobile apps, but ended up spending thousands of dollars in the year. More often than not, you won't notice this until it's too late.

Thing is the portion of their player base they're aliening is probably pretty small.

Lots of folks don't care about cosmetics or emotes.
Lots of folks who do care don't even follow the cash shop.
Lots of folks who do care are perfectly willing to play.
Lots of folks who care about emotes, follow the cash shop and aren't willing to pay don't care enough for it to be anything but a minor annoyance.

Really they're only throwing out the slice of the pie that:
Follows the cash shop
AND
Cares about cosmetics
AND
Doesn't want to pay
AND
Puts enough importance for it to be a deal breaker.

What portion of the playerbase is that? 1-in-1000? I wouldn't wager it's huge...

This seems like its based off a lot of data that we don't have. I am not sure how many players are being alienated or frustrated by the cash shop, but I know that these players exist. Square can do what they want, but the answer to why Square should stop is the risk of losing loyal subscribers.

As for your points, I disagree that you need to hit all of them. I don't care about most of the cosmetics or items in the cash shop. I don't follow the monthly updates to the cash shop (or however frequent it is?) I am simply frustrated that they have them in the first place. I am sure that I am in a minority, but again, I do exist.

While I completely understand this. It won't change their mind until they see that they are losing money. Telling them that you are leaving/quitting, moving on to another game won't change the current situation. As long as there are more people buying and joining the game. It won't matter to them if few people quit (This is sad but it is how business work). As long as there is gain, it won't matter.

I am not saying people will threaten to quit over it. I am saying that they are frustrated with the development team. That frustration makes it easier for them to pick up bags and leave to a competitor, as soon as an attractive competitor arises. Square won't see the loss of money until it's too late. The answer to why they shouldn't do this was predictive business practices, not adaptive business practices.