I appreciate the effort you're putting into making a case for this. It's not just the price of the packs, like you've said. It's a combination of things. It's the lack of sellable rewards cards, the lack of any bulk bonus at all, the fear from getting burned on Chaos Legion. To be involved in this game now takes new money, and many of us are understandably skeptical to spend the amount it would take to max out a set.
This really should go up for a proposal. The post you've made is most of the way there already. Cryptomancer said he'd fund it. Some of the bigger SPS holders are already saying they're against it, which is not surprising. But others have said they're not sure yet. If we can even win a few of the biggest whales over, it might stand a chance.
I understand why they had to get rid of the bulk bonuses, and even the real rewards cards. It curbs some of the exploitation, but it also puts it out of reach for some of us. With older sets, I would try to save up the funds to get at least 500 packs at a time, to get a few extra, to bring the cost down to something more reasonable. And to open enough packs to hopefully even out the fact that most packs are worth only a fraction of their cost. With enough packs opened, though, a few jackpot pulls will sometimes even it out.
Packs are fun to open, though. And trying to figure out where to spend money on singles is daunting. I like to buy the packs and open them and hope for jackpots. I did buy a lot of Rebellion packs, but like you, I didn't get most of them to the levels I wanted. And I just couldn't spend the amount of money it would take to get them there. I'm questioning how much I want to get into the next set at all.
I absolutely agree with you. We are in a different place within the game, with an entirely different ecosystem. What we might have once been able to support, we no longer can. The changes were made during a certain level of growth in the game, and now that period has subsided, and with it the growth and earning potential that led to the increased pack prices. We need to factor these new economic considerations into the pack prices as well. Cheers!