Do people not have self control? If you saw how much money loot boxes generate for these companies you would know the answer to that question. It's pretty clear that there is is something wrong when EA publishes profits in excess of $800M from digital purchases in a single year.
All of which speaks nothing to the fact that a loot box is anti-consumer. Want to buy a cosmetic item? Well you can't. Go ahead and buy a chance at having it. Didn't get it? well just try a couple more times. Still no? We'll you've already spent $20 trying to obtain the skin you want and you still don't have it so you may as well keep going or else that $20 was wasted....
Loot boxes obfuscate the actual costs of purchasing cosmetic items. People defend them saying "it would be more expensive to buy everything directly" which would be true if you assume that I want to buy every single microtransaction (even that word is designed to be disarming and seemingly nominal) item created (80% of which are just loot box filler to dilute the odds of getting what you actually wanted).
At least with direct purchasing I can make an informed decision. If I wanted a cosmetic item, I could see the cost and decide if I want to buy it at that price or not. Loot boxes are so profitable because they strip the consumer of that purchasing choice and train them to repetitively make small purchases to mask the total spending over the course of many months/years. On top of that, you can throw in the 'limited time availability' events games like Overwatch and LoL continually cycle through in order to place urgency on spending/gambling rather than allow the player to purchase when it's convenient for them - I would argue many of the people who think they practice self-control over digital spending are likely influenced heavily by the game itself without taking much notice.
