Eternals: Why is Riot charging players for something that's free in literally every other game?

Achievements.

They've been around for longer than some League of Legends players have been alive. A system that tracks your progress and awards you with badges/titles/score for meeting certain criteria. This is a part of most games we all play, even indy games, and they are something that is included for free as part of the game.

Not so for League of Legends.

Previously, purchasing a set 1 Eternal for a champion in PBE cost 850 RP each, which would cost a player 123,250 RP total across 145 champions to unlock set 1, and this would amount to over $800 USD if you purchased $100 worth of RP at a time.

In the latest /dev update, Riot claims to have "lowered the price" of Eternals. Is this really true, and if so then by how much?

Let's do the math!

Each champion will now have a "Common" set of Eternals that only include "basic" achievement stats like kills, tower damage, etc which will go for 225 RP each (or 3500 BE during a twice a year sales event). There will also be "Unique" sets with champion specific achievements that will ONLY be sold for RP at a price of 590.

So for one champion you have to unlock both Eternals for a combined cost of 815 RP (more than $5 USD each). Multiply that by 145 currently available champions and you have 118,175 RP.

The bottom line: This method is only 5k RP cheaper than the previous amount and will still cost a player over $800 USD to fully unlock set 1 (only the FIRST set!!).

Riot is pretending like they listened and did us all a favor, but what they really did was a bait and switch where they tried to make it look like it was cheaper while attempting to appear generous by offering Common Eternals in a twice a year Essence Emporium sale (but what Annie main would want to pay 3500 to track kills and objectives on their 450 champion?).

I have never seen an achievement system marketed like this in any other game, and this business model only shows Riot's greed and lack of empathy for the game and the player community. Add Eternals because it's a great addition to a fun game, not because it can be used to make a quick buck. Eternals should be a part of owning a champion from the moment they are unlocked, not something you have to pay to enjoy.

My suggestion: Use the emote flair as the money grabber, like how level 6 and 7 mastery works. The way the current system works is outrageous.