I feel like Rocket League is like the smallest offender. What really shocked me when I discovered that like 99% of FIFA streams were about loot pack openings these days, not actually anyone playing/enjoying the game. And when they dare to do so anyway, their live viewer count drops right away. Also in this case it’s pure gambling, as you don’t know what you’ll get with any buy.
FIFA is one of the worst offenders, because it's not just cosmetic. There's a constant flood of player cards of escalating ability, and you have to either keep grinding for objectives, or drop tons of cash, just to stay competitive. I've quit playing because of it because it just stopped being fun, even as a casual player.
How bad can this really be without ceasing to be a realistic feeling game? Like I would imagine you’ve got just a few stats like speed, endurance, ball handling and kicking accuracy.
What does the game look like with base F2P characters vs top tier characters? Are they just laughably faster on the field?
Yeah, speed is one of the key meta aspects, and having a boost in that area is a major advantage if the player is good at other aspects as well. At some point your players just can't keep up. A new version of the game is released end of September every year, and by Christmas it's borderline unplayable unless you keep escalating.
Additionally, there are daily/weekly/monthly challenges that require you to do certain things, like score a goal with a player from the Belgian league in 10 different games. So players will score to achieve their goal and then disconnect, and just waste everybody's time. Or the objective will be "Win 10 games", and the community has decided that if you give up the first goal during one of these challenges, you're expected to just concede immediately. Otherwise the opposing player will take long pauses, perform every goal celebration and replay, anything to annoy you into quitting. It's become really toxic, all because of the rewards that are at stake.
Edit: People tried to fight this in court, with basically zero results: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-03-09-eas-10m-dutch-...