Disclaimer: Nothing here is under the NDA this is all public knowledge, there is even a youtube video on the insider rewards and how long it will take for you to unlock them once you begin. IE start now and it will take you till 2025 to get rewards we got in 2022
With no catch up mechanic for insider rewards the later a person joins the program the further behind they will be. Forever getting further and further behind. The gold reward tiers are laughable considering you play 1 hour to get 3k gold. You could just go visit 1 island or a shipwreck near the outpost you log into and make more than that in under 5 minutes.
For those who dont understand what a catch up mechanic is, it is a way for you to "catch up" to those who are ahead of you. Granted this is usually more a system for games with power creep like WoW. For example you come into a game a year after everyone else, you wouldnt be able to play with them because you would be a whole year of progress behind them and would be a hindrance to their play.
While the cosmetics of insiders are an added bonus to helping test the game they also create this mentality of "well i got my 1 hour this week time to log" instead of fully finishing testing of new stuff. This has lead to a lot of insiders just AFKing for an hour each week vs actually going out to test anything. Doesnt help that feedback is often ignored there as much as it is on the normal forums.
If someone wants the insider cosmetics but then they look at the fact that they need to play for 3 whole years to collect the cosmetics they have missed out on by not playing..... This also means they need to play 3 more years to get the newer stuff because they are so far behind. And as long as new insider rewards keep getting put out there will be no end to the need to catch up and how far behind new testers will be.
