Yeah, I’ve stopped playing dark pattern games too. A loot box is a dark pattern, even if that takes the form of a randomly sealed pack of cards.

Also I’ve always hated going to a tournament to try to socialize, but the only words I get told by anyone are “turn” and “trigger,” so fuck that noise.

MTG isn’t (currently) as bad as things like Pokémon with the scalping and collecting. Building tournament ready decks can cost you a lot of money but they sell tons of prebuilt regular and commander decks you can buy for ~$30-$60 and just play with your friends. This is sort of the standard for casual play with friends, which is the kind you’d be into if you’re comparing it to Uno or Catan. If you showed up to Commander Night with your buddies sporting a $500 hand built monster deck they’d turn you away at the door.

Turns out, when your product is a piece of cardboard anyone can print it off at home. The game itself is fun, but yeah I hate the micro transactions/gambling too. Luckily in most play groups proxies are totally welcome

The $150 cardboard is so obviously a racket. The game itself was fun, but I could only get into it by proxying a lot of cards. A sharpie is a reasonable investment.
Nowadays I have Forge on my phone for the same cost.

I’ve never understood for the card collecting aspect. The most someone might catch me with is buying a few precons because I want to play with my friends. And even then I’ll totally make a few fakes. I’m just playing with friends so it doesn’t really matter if they’re legit imo

Solely because they're dynamic games. The ones you listed are static, with finite game possibilities. The appeal of TCG is the diversity of cards allowing for an incredible range of strategies that can't be matched by a static card game. Building a viable strategy around the cards you've drafted/drawn is the entire source of fun for some.