I recall playing with knockoff Pokémon trading cards when I was a kid. Same fun, $/$$ instead of $$$.

Highly doubt. Somehow video games are funding themselves selling skins. My understanding is that Gen Z eats them up. I’m a late millenial, and the Skyrim horse armor debacle was a formative experience, as such I have never paid for a skin, and neither have any of my (similarly aged) friends. Z

Horse armor was Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, I pirated it :) I did, however, pay for the Shivering Isles expansion.