And that's exactly what you guys wanted.

And that's exactly what those guys wanted.

And before anyone brings up the 'They're not pay to win because you can get them from FW' argument...

Pay-to-win changes in meaning depending on the arguer. That's always been the case. The goalpost for the Pay-to-Win definition continuously moves around to justify certain things and eventually it's just a keyword that people use to argue whether or not something should be in the game when it's really just a difference of opinion.

Here's the facts:

BPOs and APEX BPOs take away the feeling of risk and loss from this game. You don't have to worry about ISK expenditure and no matter how you want to justify it (availability in LP store, the ****** Eve Online 'noob ship' argument that people parrot while having no idea what they're talking about) the fact of the matter is this: In case of the APEX BPO, you field a powerful suit that is capable of versatility that standard BPO's simply cannot match. Sure, you can put on Complex modules and what not on a standard BPO, but you will never have the diverse effects of maximum fitting slots - this is where the power of higher tiered suits comes from to begin with outside of better PG/CPU.

The customization of APEX suits puts a precedent that, if you want to win in this game, you have to pay up. That, if you want an endless ISK source that is generated while you make minimal changes to your gameplay performance, you need to chalk up a few bucks. This effect is permanent and the argument was originally that "we don't have a market, we don't have an economy" - well, now we do.

We have a way to sell assets to an NPC vendor for raw ISK, we have an ability to trade items (that will eventually include things besides just officer gear). Yes, we have an economy now, even if it is rudimentary. Consider the effects that are brought on by the following:

The value of Standard Gear compared to a single BPO.
The value of a BPO compared to an APEX BPO.

Why would you ever buy a standard -anything- when you can just buy the one BPO and be done with it, PERMANENTLY?
Why would you ever buy a BPO if you can customize an APEX BPO, PERMANENTLY?

Regardless of how little of an impact they've made, they've still made an impact. There is simply no reason at all to purchase standard ISK variant suits/weapons anymore because BPO's replace them and give you the functionality of never having to spend ISK on them again; essentially creating an ISK faucet. The two most expensive items in the game are Suits and Weapons - both of which conveniently have BPO availability.

In the scope of the economy, these things are monstrous. I really can't wrap my head around why the Dust 514 community cannot see that or care about that.

Assuming one could have any less fun by spending ISK on the same gear.

-Sound of glass breaking as he stares at the ******* screen with a thousand yard stare-

Well, like I just said in Talos' thread. (shameless copy/paste)

Now, considering Soldner completely broke me as a person with the startling realization that customizable APEX BPOs are pretty much -exactly- what CCP Z was going for with the whole "only BPO will be your dropsuit" thing; that is also an acceptable alternative -IF AND ONLY IF- that benefit applies TO ALL PLAYERS, not just those that pay or sit through dozens/hundreds of hours in FW.

Please also explain at what point 'fun' starts/stops being a justification for an exception in a core game design.

Honestly, think they should just do away with power-levels all together and just make all the dropsuits BPOs. Adhere to CCP Z's progression plan and it'd iron out a -lot- of freaggin issues.