Regarding formats: prior to the advent of straight-to-Modern sets triggered “rotations”, Modern was much cheaper to play than other formats. You could build a d

Regarding formats: prior to the advent of straight-to-Modern sets triggered “rotations”, Modern was much cheaper to play than other formats. You could build a deck and keep it for years, with only marginal updates as new cards came out through Standard sets. High buy-in price, but low upkeep cost. This was opposed to Standard, where yearly rotations kept the format fresh, but was also a treadmill of having to buy new cards to be competitive. In a large part, Pioneer has filled the void left by pre-“rotation” Modern, although it is arguable that from a gameplay perspective, Modern is much healthier after the Horizons sets. I agree that EDH/Commander is problematic as the most popular format. It’s the “deep end” of the pool, per se. However, I think WotC has done a great job managing this with their balanced pre-constructed products, that have a decent upgrade path. I don’t see Brawl as anything other than a digital-only format that is basically something else to do with cards you collect in MTGA. Regarding acquiring new players, I think WotC has done a great job of this with Arena. It has resulted in the death of in-paper Standard, but is probably what has brought more players to the game than anything else, although it has its own set of issues. But you are right that several things about the game are suboptimal.