I occasionally think back to Rocket League, which I loved in its earlier days. I put close to 100 hours into it, which is a lot for one game for me. Then they added lootboxes, leaned harder into the competitive space, and just completely sucked the soul out of it. And yet it's still hugely popular.

I just don't get it.

I don't play these types of games either. I tried playing it with my sister and it just wasn't my thing. I only play single player titles. Linux lets me play all the games I'd care to, with the exception of some really old games for Windows 95, 98, and XP.

Used to play Apex Legends a lot, so could give some reasons why.

A core part of Apex's monetization is "keep the core gameplay F2P accessible and make super expensive skins for those who can pay". The game would put items worth around 300$ multiple times in a single season. After that as long as the gameplay's solid; F2P players wouldn't find a reason to not play; and whales could flex their 300$ death box to all these players interacting with them. Hell, give F2P players tasks that take too long to unlock new skins; and maybe they'll toss a few bucks in too. You've got yourself a neat money loop, and players are happy.

As for cheating; most people i see cheating does it as a way of doing the unexpected in a video game. Cheating is not enjoyable to most if you do it all the time; but the cheat providers offer cheats with shorter time spans to hook the people that want to do just that. I recall an interview done with a cheat developer for a different yet similarly popular game, and they've said most of their sales come through these.