Games

if you even hold an internally consistent view of what scams are

Yes, and I've detailed it already. A scam is a fraudulent business deal, meaning you receive something other than what was agreed on.

Selling someone the Brooklyn Bridge is fraud because you're not receiving what was promised, ownership of the Brooklyn Bridge, because the seller doesn't own it and therefore can't transfer ownership to you. It's not a scam because you can't take it home with you, it's a scam because you're not getting what was advertised.

Yep, no ranked competitive games have this

Right, and there are two mentalities here:

• "posers" - those who spend a ton to "look" fancy, but they're really not that good
• good players - they'll either earn cosmetics, or they stream and the cosmetics become a business expense

You'll see the first in the lower brackets and the second in the upper brackets. They'll both often have top-tier gear, and the first gets it to "feel" cool instead of actually getting an edge from the benefits of that gear, whereas the second actually benefits from the gear. So even in a competitive game, the MTX are still targeting the more casual players. I think there's also a significant overlap in cheaters and the first group, because the first group feels "entitled" to doing well, despite not actually being that good.

I consider that first group to largely be "casual" because the intent there isn't to practice to get better, but to show off, even if the game is designed to be competitive.

In any case, those MTX aren't scams, you're getting exactly what you're paying for, and in many cases you can demo it before purchasing. I think buying them is stupid, but that's because I put very little value in what they offer, whereas others could find a lot more value in it.