I'd personally prefer games to be made cheaper and without some of the extras if it's really that necessary. Trim the fat and focus on the core experience.Then you get people screaming about the lack of content or how the game looks like trash or whatever.
Microtransactions really aren't something that most publishers have to do, at least not in these egregious ways, they just want to maximize their profits. They'd profit anyways probably especially with the ever increasing digital attach rate as well as all the weird special editions that are being put out nowadays.