This has been a good discussion, and I agree a bit with both of you.
On one hand I agree that it’s part part of the game design to either have unlockables stuff or have access directly to it. And it can alter greatly how each designer and player approaches the game.
I don’t think it’s wrong either way but there are several examples in the industry where the design turns on greed mode and the gameplay feels second tought if at all. But that doesn’t mean if they are charging you, or you need to unlock it it’s automatically unfair.
I haven’t played Helldivers but for what I understand is a pve game in which you teamup to advance trough levels. For me it sounds fine that the progression is behind a grind. Although It could be even better to have it all unlocked, it could change the complete feeling of the game
On the other hand pvp games like Civilization, skull girls, should have either everything unlocked or a way to easily unlock it trough a little play. Since the appeal for me is for everyone to be on equal footing and just a display of skill.
Altough termal prints seem to fade over time, it seems that his use case is to add images to his notebooks. So i don’t think that would be a good idea unless the plan is to throw it away at the end of the course