The discussion problem is that nobody you know is exploring the game. There's no collaborative learning and sharing and theorycrafting. Even if they played it they might not remember the story well after five years.

In that case, someone that is easily able to delay but chooses not to might be happiest of all?

> Subsequent upgrades provide marginal enjoyment and often feel more like obligations than anything.

Uh huh...

I don't know, I don't find your argument at all convincing that this person gets less enjoyment considering they get to have the same product at the end.

Maybe they have less of a first day wow factor if they touch many intermediate versions, but that fades fast. But even that is a maybe because by splitting up advances you can give each one more focus.

Learning how to walk is way better than crawling, but you're not going to have more total enjoyment by waiting and going nowhere in the mean time.

> Plus they save a whole load of money.

Obviously they save money, but the interesting part of your claim was that they both save money and get more enjoyment.