> Games ship with "6 expansions in box" which sounds great [...] until you realize that they're poorly playtested, lack balance, and add a confounding (and sometimes contradictory) number of rules.
Hot take: I have never played an expansion that I liked more than the base game.
I won't argue that. There are a handful that I think improve the experience (some of the early Carcassonne ones, for example) but they are by far the exception rather than the rule.
Hot take: I have never played an expansion that I liked more than the base game.