AdnurakThe BBC catches up on what everyone has known for 10 years
It will probably take another 10 years for the mainstream to realise that what's truly addictive about many of these games is the tightly-controlled matchmaking system, it's the reason people get so invested in these games that they're willing to spend the money in the first place, the entire matchmaking system in most of these games is a carefully crafted loop of addictive incentives, every single aspect of it is designed to keep you playing and make you care about a dumbass Elo-flavoured carrot on a stick.
I don't think there'll ever be serious attention given to this though, it's easy to see there's a problem when an addiction involves money directly (not to mention more attractive to governments looking to extract fines from offenders), but it's not so easy for an outsider to see all the moving parts in a system that makes it so addictive that people will continue playing a game they basically hate just because of meta-incentives like ranks, levels and skins.
This is a barmy idea and would never happen but if you banned game companies from offering meta-progression elements (item unlocks, skins, ranking up) as a reward for playing only on first party servers I actually believe that much of this addiction stranglehold would evaporate. There's something extremely sinister about the same group controlling the fundamental characteristics of the game, the manner in which it is played, when rewards are distributed, and the rate at which the more desirable rewards will be given.
https://i.imgur.com/b8RkW2K.png
on the subject of matchmaking being carefully crafted to addict, this article about EOMM (Engagement Optimized Matchmaking) in COD is a super interesting read