As someone who has had to paint mini faces before, this isn’t aweful, not great by any means but could have been much worse. They definitely need to thin their paints, probably use a smaller brush, and go slower. But in the person would painted this’ defense, faces are so hard to do well, and even harder to fix if you fuck it up.
This is probably seen through rose tinted glasses, but Halo 3 had the best multi-player experience I think. It has community created maps, game modes, and an a way for anybody with a account to share what they made. From pictures to custom forge maps. I have nothing but fond memories of the experience. So it makes sense to me at least that some people wouldn’t stop playing until Microsoft or Bungie or whoever made them.
While monetarily the subscription is stupid expensive, several years ago blizzard added a way to pay in-game gold for an item that’s worth a month’s game time.
If this person is putting off eating to play they’re would be considered “hardcore” in my opinion. And if that’s the case, they probably have way to get around the monthly cost, or they could have bought mass time all at once on discount.
Their plastic/resin is garbage, and you’re right that the sculpts are flawed, especially in the finder details. I bet if they tried this in metal it would have worked out better.