While I can't say I've paid more for less as a whole, I've definitely had a higher fun to dollar with SC than many other more finished, flashier games. It's what you make of it and the people you meet along the way, just like any other MMO. It definitely has its warts and issues, but I think a lot of people also hate it because they were told it was bad and evil and I don't think that's really true. It has the trappings of any large game service products which people call greedy but it does cost a lot to run. I think a lot of the criticism boils down to that's a lot of money and not a lot of fast progress, and that's fair but this game is also unique in being public from a far too early point of development and many other games with smaller scopes are just as slow when developing a new engine/IP (relative to the scope) but the public doesn't see much until we get to just about this point in development.

But it's not been launched. It's kind of like all the people that were bashing Skull & Bones or Rainbow Six Extraction before they even came out.

Sure, now that they're actually out you can say people were right but I also wonder how much of that is self fulfilling prophecy. If you literally kill the PR for a product/game, it's really hard for any studio or company to come back from that.

Nowhere has this studio said the game as it has been seen by players is "done" or the launch product.