Cosmetic vs. gameplay impact, what are you talking about ?
Micro transactions.
You said they dodged reviews by not adding micro transaction in until a month later.
Thats not true. MTX was in from launch.
They had them from the start, thus any reviewer could comment on them.
Sure they added XP boost but wtf is that, its nothing. not worthy of extra criticism as they are abundant in these games.
I finished this game at level 350+ and skipped so much of the bloat,
Getting levels did not really help you as you could just endless swap your skills around and things like health and power are tied to skills. Quests gave so much exp i would accrue like 8-10 skill points before even bothering to place them.
I reject your entire premises that they dodge criticism by adding boost later. No one would have criticized them for that as that same product has been around for many games now and is reluctantly accepted.
BTW - buy this game on sale for $20 next Black Friday or just sub to UBI+ for $15 and beat it in a month. its not worth full pull