Variant and Criterion are not good content, and I'm tired of pretending otherwise

[Anonemoose]

Try to get into Criterion. Find out there's not that many people who want to do it. Look for an explanation. Lack of rewards seems like a reasonable one. You can't even gear in Criterion for Criterion.

Yeah because people are told it's "not rewarding" so they don't do it. That's exactly my point. People are not willing to think for themselves and instead they surrender their capacity to critically think, analyse and even make decisions for themselves to some talking head internet personality that has never met them, doesn't know them, and doesn't care about them. This is the end result of people forfeiting their humanity and becoming literal NPCs. "If you want to do content you have to travel to Aether, it's the PF/content DC" is another prime example.