Dunno man, when the “core gameplay loop” gets interrupted every 2 minutes with “do you want to pay to win?” Banners and 50% of the screen is covered in ads and trap buttons that pop up a purchase dialog when you press them accidentally (a given on mobile with touch controls), it’s fairly obvious the gameplay loop is the last thing in the developers mind.

> games allow you to spend money to rapidly get better

Audience is the problem here. It's obviously not a big deal if the platform is targeted for adults, but majority of users are underage. The platform can certainly implement guardrails for the vulnerable users if they wish to

Anecdotally, I have 3 nieces and 2 nephews and only the oldest has avoided Roblox

Every Christmas and birthday now is "I want Robux" and they are actively annoyed if they get anything else

This thing is bad for children

> the core gameplay loops work just fine without it.

Of course it's functional, it has to string people along for enough time to get them to start paying.

That doesn't mean grinding a system tuned to get you hooked enough to give up and pay is a 'just fine' as a game. It's openly deliberate malicious design.