>>137254I think it's because it's something you can add to make it seem like there's more to any game and it gives a sense of progression, but it seems like it takes away more than it adds. Half the upgrades in this game are completely pointless, like a bunch of HP increases and making the stupid dog marginally better at things he's never going to be doing, a few are critical to the core gameplay and make the first bit of the game feel really awkward until you can get them, and then the rest are OP shit that negates the strategy and technique you spent the earlier bits learning. Maybe they want to have that dopamine hit from a big "side quest complete" and need a spendable resource to enable that, but when the gameplay itself is fun you don't need to encourage players to interact with it.