That doesn't explain why it's upsetting that the dlc is not free.
Eh, I guess that's just entitlement? They'd have more of an argument if something like practice or qualifying was being added as a feature across the whole game in a paid DLC a month or 6 months after the game came out.
Maybe they'll add practice and qualifying to the whole game later (if it isn't already as part of the Spec 3 update that they just didn't specifically feel the need to mention.) Which people would then also complain why did they "pay for it" before. All comes down to the perspective a person chooses to have. I don't feel like I'm paying for Practice or Qualifying because I don't really care that much about it and I don't think it matters much in the grand scheme of GT7 as it is. If a month from now they say "Oh, now it's available to everyone!", I'm not going to be upset. In my mind, I am paying for the DLC to support PD, for all of the time/money they've spent on prior and currently releasing content, and in return I'm getting new events/missions and that's about it. If they add these 50 events in next months free patch, then I'll be annoyed. I don't expect Sophy 3.0 to be some ground breaking change. It's already very good. This'll probably just make it work better for tire/fuel/pitstop management and better rain behavior (I honestly didn't realize it didn't already work with rain.)
I'm also voting with my dollars to say that, hey, I am interested in events that are based around real racing series, so that in the future, maybe they'll have less "Jimny Cup" or "Vision GT" events and more "Japanese Group A", "DTM", "AE86 N2", "BTCC", "Vintage Trans-Am", '90s GT, mid 2000s "GT1/GT2", "Can-Am" etc, down to SCCA/NASA club level (national amateur racing organizations here in the US) "Showroom Stock", "Touring 1/2/3/4", "Unlimited" events. And in turn, they would add more cars that fit into those categories. But also I love classic Gran Turismo so I'd love for them to make a DLC or keep adding more broad events based around Station Wagons, 4 door sport sedans, kei cars, RR, MR, FR, 70s/80s/90s etc events.
Practice/Qualifying is a feature that was probably more difficult to add than people think (cause it always is) and it's being added in a limited capacity that's maybe only necessary or applicable to racing against Sophy in an endurance event, so why bother adding it elsewhere. Or the feature was difficult enough to add that we're lucky they decided to add it at all in this limited capacity.
If they decided to put a "Donate" button in the game, where the only thing you get in return is knowing you're supporting Polyphony's efforts directly (lets just say it bypassed Sony for the sake of the argument), I would be happy to toss in $50 or $100. Because I've had way more than $100 worth of value (physical copy at launch for $70 or whatever and then later a digital copy for $30) from GT7 since launch and I want to support them and I know and understand that producing content for the game costs money.
Nothing is free. To me this is a very obvious and basic concept that for some reason I keep writing lengthy posts trying to convey. It feels like a silly waste of time.
The only real argument I can stand behind 95% of the time, and the reason this forum is almost non-stop chaotic debate, is that Sony/Polyphony are not transparent enough. If they'd simply explain the reasoning for their choices, then we could have more grounded and less speculative discussion. That other 5% is kind of understanding why they do it. Because you see with some developers, when they do explain the thought process behind a decision or let the player base have input prior to a games release, that turns into it's own insanity from likely this same segment of people who think everything should be free.
