Value of MTGA is based in paper MTG
MTGA has value only as far as it is mimics paper magic. My friends and I play MTGA only because it allows us to brew and try out new decks before we play together in person. If MTGA did not translate to paper magic, we would not spend time or money playing it. Formats and cards that only exist in digital formats are worthless to us. Additionally, in the past pre release weekends, I would drop $50-$100 on MTGA to play in sealed events before playing in person, to get a feel for the new cards. MTGA releasing the cards before in-store events did not reduce our in-store attendance, but rather was a way prep for in-store play with friends. When you decided to push pre release back until the weekend, after paper prerelease, I still went to all the same in store events I was going to anyway, the only difference was that there was no longer any value spending real money on MTGA. The paper pre-release weekend had come and gone, the in paper sealed events were over, there was no point spending real money to play sealed events on MTGA. By pushing the online release back a weekend, you did not increase in store attendance for my friends and I, you just lost out on our money that we wanted to spend to prep and try the cards out ahead of time. Lastly, we really appreciate the Explorer format. Alchemy is a big joke for us, the format that no one asked for, and historic doesn’t translate well to any paper format so we don’t play that either. If you’re looking to earn a profit from my friends and I who play in-person paper magic and MTGA, the more closely MTGA aligns with paper magic, the better we can use MTGA to brew and try out new decks, the more time and money we’ll spend on MTGA.