I’m sorry to derail this topic even more but this is actually really interesting to me and I think it’s a valuable discussion. I might just be completely desensitized to this from playing way to much D2 and I’d like to get some more information on it if you’re up for it. So I’d like to try and draw some parallels and find out where the line is for you.
For the purposes of this comparison, I’d like to pretend we are playing D2 in offline mode or at least just solo so we don’t have trading. Let’s take a look at the process of getting a perfect Last Wish runeword from D2. It is super not necessary to beat the game and is more of a show off piece than anything. It has an astronomical cost of Jah + Mal + Jah + Sur + Jah + Ber. most people who play D2 don’t play enough to ever find a Mal, let alone the rarer Sur, let alone the even rarer Ber, let alone the crazy wtf rarer 3 Jah runes. Then we also have to find a base for the item, a perfect 6os 15% ED Phase Blade should do nicely (I don’t think PBs can get enhanced durability because they are indestructible but it’s been a while). Luckily because we aren’t accepting anything other than perfect, this piece is actually reusable if we are ok destroying the runes inside. Then we have to get perfect rolls on the item itself. Because the chance of hitting any one spot in the range is equal, you have a 1/46 chance (2.17%) for the ED roll and a 1/11 (9.1%) for the CB. This is a 1/506 (0.198%) chance of getting a perfect roll on the unbelievably expensive item you’ve just created.
So I do want to point out that there are several differences in this system and getting that perfect T28 exalted item because it just has to drop as is right out of the gate. You can re-roll the mods on it though so you have a few cracks at the perfect version which is nice. Both of these hypothetical items are non-deterministic to find. You might play either game for a decade and never get them.
This isn’t an attempt to refute your points at all. I would like your opinion if these are similar cases or if they are different in the item acquisition flow. If they are, what is the key property that makes them different and why?