Well, last I checked, the market for selling Techs isn't that robust.
And yeah, $300 does seem more affordable than trying to enjoy more aspect of the game.
Prevention card mining would be too expensive even for many established players. It remains to be seem if people would be bothered to use them at all since taxes are so high, any amount of "penalty" is simply just part of the package and not really felt.
Back to the main point, how many people on this chain can actually shell out that money? I'm not talking about folks like you and me. I'm talking about the other thousands whose Hive earnings are literally living wages where they are from.
Ah good point that I hadn't considered, prevention cards are worthless with this set up! All in all you make some good points, which confirm that I shouldn't leave the taxes here for too long because the incentives get a bit wonky.
I think the idea of 'small players' and 'new players' is probably worthy of more in depth analysis, it really depends on how creative you get, the focus on only SIM as the profits of the game limits the playable choices. I published this set up more than 8 months ago, which costs less than 9 hive to set up right now and mines me a citizen card in more than 95% of days:
It's not about the facts, but the psychology.
A profit-driven/or determined person will find a way to make even that 9 HIVE investment stretch.
A hobbyist, on the other hand, will just turn elsewhere.