you can join other to play the content. it wont cost you a dime.
ok, so theres multiple things that i have a problem with in your statement.
first of all, you dont have to pay anything to play this new content. you and your friends can join others games as a grouo with the match making built into the game.
second, if you dont want do the prep missions and rather pay, that seems like a personal problem. theres others, including myself who likes them and find them fun and challenging to do.
third of all, noooooooooooo one uses armor outside of pvp. its too expensive and its gone after one or two shoots. its a waste of money. you know what people do??? they eat the snacks whike in cover because of two reasons, no eating animation so your health fills instantly meaning you can spam the snacks to quickly fill your health and eating snacks in cover or while in a vehicle you get more health.
fourth, getting killed in two hits is highly unlikely. so i think your just blowing things a bit out of proportions here.
fifth, if your not having fun playing the base game and find it to be boring and a grind, then its pretty obvious its not the game for you.
1: Playing with randoms is horrible most of the time, its fine for contact missions, but these highly precise heist missions are mostly miserable in public. Secondly, you bring up one of my other main issues with the game, this game's matchmaking is backasswards. Getting into a random match with your friends is about a 50/50 shot as it often splits you into different rooms, even if your quick on the job invite accept screen.
2: That's fine and all, but I just feel this aspect was really unnecessary, at least charge less for folks like me who don't wanna do them so we can still turn a LITTLE profit.
3: I am well aware of snacks, my friend and I go through these every single mission, and given how much damage bullets do to you, I feel the extra protection, however little it might be, is necessary. It is starting to seem like a waste though. I found out last night that there is clothing armor that is supposed to provide hefty protection in these specific missions but apparently it isn't working. Need to investigate further.
4: Want me to record a video?
5: True, the game is going in a direction I don't like, but I am so critical of it BECAUSE I still love the game so very much, and feel like it could be so much more if rockstar would backoff the nickel and diming just a TINY bit. Hell, I don't mind the existence of shark cards, I just feel like it's balanced really unfairly.