This is why they are actually profitable and roll out new features. Because they don't spend time redesigning old shit every time they have a new design in mind.
The first known instance of a loot-box system is believed to be an item called "Gachapon ticket" which was introduced in the Japanese version of MapleStory, a side-scrolling MMORPG, in June 2004.
Man, looked at my bank statement many years ago and noticed several little charges. A few cents here and a few cents there. The biggest one was maybe .80 cents.
My son had fallen for some scam ran by a YouTuber and was buying and trading skins.
I will say though, now that time has passed, some of those skins are worth insane amounts of money. I’d sell them if I wasn’t so stupid sentimental.
My son got in trouble for doing that, but it still takes me back to a pleasant time when I look at the inventory.
there is a thing called shared front-end components, so each time you need to add a button on an interface, you don't need to recreeate a new one and it looks consistent for the user.
And Steam is known for being super slow at rolling out anything.