Gaming

It is glorified gambling.

As someone who has played several of these (including HSR), the games themselves can be very good, but it's always despite its gacha mechanics, not because of it. It should be obvious that gacha is a predatory monetization model that has unfortunately seen great success.

This has led to gacha games often leading the mobile market in terms of quality, marketing and development. I'd much prefer it if more games were sold for a one-time fee or even a subscription model for live-service games, but these types of games will continue to be rare in the mobile market due to the profitability of gacha.

On the positive side, most gacha games allow even f2p (free-to-play) players to keep up with the story and events. Many players even find playing these games as an f2p player more enjoyable because of the challenge. So for those who have self-control, I don't think they should be discouraged from at least trying these games.

I appreciate that they're something I can play casually. When my kid was first born, I need something to do for a couple hours between feedings, and Genshin was great for that.

But there's definitely some things that I hate about them. Characters 'disappearing' after their story area is done sucks. Old characters not getting buffs/nerfs sucks. And the predatory nature of the games, where it feels like players are fighting the devs for resources, sucks.