This was a post from Reddit, and I want to bring people's attention to this because everything this fellow player here has to say was very much valid. Smilegate, I would love it and appreciate it very much if you seriously take the suggestion this player has into consideration.
Link to original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/EpicSeven/comments/alxhup/im_a_whale_and_ive_never_actually_written_a_post/

So, as a general rule, I tend to keep quiet and lurk on these subs. There are better pitchfork/Gungnir wielders than I, and I tend to just make a snide comment or ask a question here or there. I'm probably gonna get yelled at for this but; here goes.

I came over from FFBE, SOA, and Dragalia, having spent an ungodly amount (5 figures, let's just leave it at that) on FFBE, and a lesser but deeply significant amount on Dragalia and SOA. Since switching, I've spent a few thousand on Epic7 as well. This isn't a testament to my income, trust me; this is a deeply stupid set of financial decisions on my part, and more emblematic of a gambling addiction than anything. Still, it is what it is; I've given these guys more than they'd get from any single AAA title customer, even with DLC, etc.

Well, now I'm done doing that. At least for the foreseeable future.

I would highlight first that what seems to be happening with Smilegate is less an exception to the industry and more the rule; if you look into the SQE/Gumi collaboration that is FFBE and it's sub, you'll routinely find it in an uproar, and that's a common trait with a lot of Gacha games players; dissatisfaction.

Now, I really enjoy E7, and while I don't leap to its defense, I've broadly abstained from criticism and have continued to spend my money. When it comes to gacha subs, sometimes I worry the complaining is par for the course with gaming culture, but honestly, after seeing this same dynamic enough, I've come to realize it's dev culture. Video Game development and publishing doesn't seem to adopt hospitality as being a central tenant in the way, say, a hotel/casino does. A casino knows the core source of revenue for them is gambling, with event revenue and room revenue being a distant second and third before amenities like restaurants, etc. This means the best way for them to make money is with an act that by its nature means their customers have to lose, and thus generates tension between them and their clientele. As a result, it's in their interest to try and keep them happy elsewhere, comped drinks, comped rooms, show tickets, etc. Devs, by contrast seem to be of the opinion that freebies are anathema to their financial well-being. So, any time you want something to make QoL or Gameplay more friendly to the player, they hem and haw, postpone, screw up, and come up with work arounds, etc., because they don't want to give something away for free to begin with.

Here's why I'm closing my wallet; Smilegate, you've acknowledged the problems with your game around character progression, you get that your game is resource poor, that it's hard to develop characters, that your ML characters are too unattainable, and on and on. Yet, in the remedial measures you've taken, you've utterly failed in fixing them, and the kicker is, I know that eventually you will fix them.

So, if I think they'll fix these issues, why would I stop spending money? Simple; it means I'm being cheated in the meantime. If I spend one more dollar on E7 before the fixes come in, I won't get reimbursed if, say, Leif's suddenly fully restore energy. I won't get covenant summons back if they drop the pity rate on a limited banner to 100 or 80 summons for the times I hit the pity limit on Dienne. I won't get reimbursed for the time I foddered an ML summon then find out we can turn them back in (as happened to me with the artifact powders). Once you cave and drop the energy costs or bolster the rewards for the hunts; I'll get nothing, so far your idea of compensation is 60-80 energy. All of this cash that I've spent while you figure out how to fix your game is never coming back to me; so why the hell should I keep spending?

So, to whatever poor Smilegate intern is made to read these, here's my ransom note:

-Mola Gora Recall; on your terms, but not a one off, this should be recurring; monthly, quarterly, whatever.

-Free Equipment Removal. Equipment costs are beyond foolish; most games never even consider this approach and make just as much if not more in revenue. No developer has ever filed for bankruptcy for making a game that doesn't drain resources from players while they switch gear. Ditch the costs.

-Equipment Set Forging; let us pick what set it belongs to; you can randomize everything else. It'll still take us forever to get the gear we want; but forever is only half as long as it takes now.

-Leifs and Skystones Refill full energy. This is fairly standard; if I'm buying Leif packs in particular the idea I should have to spend 2 to slightly more than fully refill is absurd.

-Give Light and Dark summons a player-favored elemental bias. Dragalia does this to excellent effect; and given Light and Dark units require 120 summons, and/or one month to attain (apart from Abyss and the rare event rewards), even a 3 star unit should be worthy of use; and yet most aren't.

-No BS rewards in high level content. If someone, Whale, Dolphin, or F2P has invested enough time and resources to be able to routinely beat a hunt stage 10 or 11, they've shown enough commitment to your product that you don't have to be afraid of them bailing because they did get the equipment set they wanted. Lose the low energy prizes, pathetic sky stone quantities, and either raise or ditch the powder/bookmark/mystery emblem amounts.

-To add to that; high level temporary content should yield high level rewards as well; if I have to get pummeled relentlessly to beat an Epic Hell difficulty; and you give me 100k, or even 300k gold; I've been ripped off.

Look, Smiles, maybe you think that gamers just complain no matter what you do; and honestly I totally get that because...well...a lot of gamers do just that. To that point; I mentioned before I spent an ungodly amount on FFBE, I don't play it anymore. I stopped because I was utterly sick of how Gumi treated a player base, and frankly me, and as someone who spent enough to cover a developer's salary for at least a quarter by himself, the idea that I'm going to put up with that garbage in perpetuity is ridiculous. Currently; Epic7 is my only Gacha; if this keeps up, it's my last Gacha.

Oh, and if you wanna add me; CyrusFFBE is one of my accounts.