Fully agree. Great post.
To put a bit more perspective on it, in most aspects of the game (aside from core gameplay loop) they sacrifice player agency (control and choice so players can cater their experience to their preferences without negatively affecting others. Something a dev should want to STRIVE toward) for artificially and enforced retention.
From the progression system, to missing hotkeys, to how equipment is acquired to the crafting system.
Design is something that is my lifelong passion. I am professionially trained and it is also something the seeps through my entire being.
This game is…baffling. A lot of the system feel roughly conceptualized, as if they made an early version and then just stopped reiterating/working on them. There is no refinement. No synergy towards achieving player satisfaction.
A lot of these issues concern things they should have already learned more on during the development cycles of especially VT2. Where did all this experience go?
To add to the confusion we have official statements such as this:
"We have learned a lot from our previous choices and gameplay surrounding crafting offered within the Vermintide series. For Darktide we wanted to take those lessons to expand and improve in such a way that crafting would become a central pillar of player progression, while giving more impact and agency to you, the player in your preferred playstyle.
The nature of randomization and repetitive actions sometimes seen within crafting is something that we are steering to avoid in the crafting system within Darktide. Meaningful choices will be made with strategy and goals behind them, as you set your eyes upon that perfect combination of melee and ranged weapons for your class."
Taken from the official darktide crafting blogpost Nov’22.
It is like they said this and then proceeded to do the opposite.
Some more in-depth regarding this perspective here: Unfinished concepts? Deliberate restriction of player choice and control? I don't understand