No one paid 45 just to play early. Obviously it may have pushed some to buy the extra content, but it’s the extra content you’re paying for. You would only have an argument if they straight up were charging just for early access.
How can you say that "no one" did that? Hell, I was tempted to do so myself, but I'm not going to shell out ten bucks per day to play 4 days early. Want to know why I KNOW that some people would be willing to do that though? Because other publishers have done it in the past, and YES, some players do shell out extra money ONLY for early access. This isn't a new thing that Microsoft is doing. I even made a video about Ubisoft doing this 3 years ago, so I know that other publishers have been preying on impatient players for years.
In fact, if we were talking about a game that I was more interested in (I've played the last 3 Forza games, but I'm not a huge racer player), say a game like Elden Ring, if they wanted an extra 40 bucks to play a week early, I would have to hide my own wallet to restrain myself from making a bad money decision.
I think you're misinterpreting what I'm saying as an attack on Microsoft, but it's not. I simply do not like this method of monetization of people's FOMO, no matter who is doing it. Like I said, lots of publishers do it, and you're never going to see me defending it when anyone does it. In the case of Forza, if I DID pay the money early, it wouldn't be for the "extra content", because I know I'm highly unlikely to play enough of the game to make it worth the money. I would strictly be paying for the early access. For you to say that no one would possibly do that is just not correct. Some people surely did just that, I promise you.