The fun in a fighting game is the core gameplay loop and improving. Showing off progress isn't through a skin, it's by your performance. If someone dislikes the core loop, they're likely not playing long even if there's a hat they think is really cool
I'd say this case is a bit different though. It's all cosmetic. I guess you can argue that tmnt/other branded adds dilute the game's aesthetic and make it a worse product overall. However, that would be the case whether or not they were paid. Costumes and other purely aesthetic paid DLC are probably the least egregious of paid content.
Well it depends on your goals with the platform. If you want a one stop shop to get all the necessary information in an efficient time then megathreads are great. It's also good at stopping a specific type of content from taking over a forum while still providing an outlet for people to discuss.
If your goal is to idly consume content, then a megathread probably sucks. Same if you want to be an influencer, it'll cut down on your exposure. Megathreads also can hide major developments that can hide behind a thread that people should be notified about. And if there wasn't much content on a platform to begin with... A megathread can force a ghost town.
There are definitely both good and bad things about Megathreads and there's a ton of depth and nuance that could be had.
In this case, I'm not sure whether a megathread was warranted or not though
On Kbin, we see the # of upvotes and # of downvote separately, is that not the case here?
Also, the goal should maybe be turning the systematically easiest and cheapest solution into one that's also green. Definitely some steps to get there though