Often, content also does end up in the base game after some time. It happened with Utopia for Stellaris, most of what it initially offered is now included in the base game.
And people who can’t or don’t want to pay still get some benefit as part of the features are always public and not DLC-only.
And there are promos a few times per year where all the DLCs are available at a huge discount. And now there's a monthly subscription for all the DLCs. So there are multiple options available to get DLCs. All in all, not a bad way of doing things.
And people who can’t or don’t want to pay still get some benefit as part of the features are always public and not DLC-only.