Yes, they make profit. No, they aren't somehow evil, vindictive, or manipulative while doing so.
This line of conversation is not at all productive. You're convinced that they're evil incarnate and will switch from one ill-informed claim (endless inflation) to another (just mindlessly reprinting old cards) on a whim. I'm not interested in getting into an endless Internet argument.
Sorry if my tone is harsh; the frustration of the young people in my club has rubbed off on me.
The evil part is all projection. The objection I (we) have is with the apparently manipulative program of cycling cards to make you keep buying new ones. Its not a mistake to think this is happening - its the process you describe. We're not the only ones to think this way - the game designers felt the need to defend themselves against the accusations as you so helpfully pointed out. Thus we can't be the only ones to be frustrated in this way.
You're convinced all the marketing is ok, not an problem. Fine, you have the money to sink into it. But we're not all like that, we're not all apologists for the company.
And some of us have done something about it. Do you blame us? Is it wrong to find another way to deliver a card game that solves some of the admitted problems with existing ones?
You only "need" to upgrade your deck if you want to play competitively. The vast majority of Magic players (according to Wizards' own research) play casually with no format restrictions.
On top of that, Wizards supports Modern, which is non-rotating, and (to a lesser degree, because of the reserve list) support Legacy and Vintage as well.
If you want to draft without dumping money into it, there's Cube.
There's a million different ways to play Magic, and only some of them have the "problem" you describe.
I put quotes around problem because the rotation is actually a solution to a different problem: staleness. In Modern, Melira Pod has been one of the top decks for several years. There are a group of people that do not want to play against the same deck all the time, hence rotation. Wizards does plenty to support those that want to play a non-rotating format.
I'm not an "apologist" I'm just using my knowledge of the facts (ie, Modern exists and is supported) and common sense (what's the alternative to printing more cards? just ... stopping?).
This line of conversation is not at all productive. You're convinced that they're evil incarnate and will switch from one ill-informed claim (endless inflation) to another (just mindlessly reprinting old cards) on a whim. I'm not interested in getting into an endless Internet argument.