Nothing wrong with the lego games however the cash grab toy tie in is microtransactions in disguise. I despise that model for gaming.
You are 100% correct. It's a money making machine that tries to get you feeling more comfortable with paying for small DLC with physical toys. And you know what? Those SOBs did a marvelous job. I'm already hooked... I want them all (well, almost).
The packs are very expensive at retail price, but at the sale price I paid they were worth it. I don't have any desire to get all the figures, but I do have a desire to buy most of the level packs. I'll be watching for sales like this one, assuming I don't get burned out. Like all Lego games, there's a lot of hours to put in if you're a completionist so you can get some mileage here.
My only complaint is that they really dropped the ball on the in-game mini fig mechanic. In every single Lego game including this one, there's pieces of minifigs scattered in each level. Once you collect them all, you get a little figure you can view in game of something related to that stage. Now that you're playing with real Legos, I was really hoping that they'd include the pieces to actually MAKE the collected minifigs. Once you collect all the pieces, the instructions would unlock and you could physically make it if you wanted. Alas it's just the exact same thing as every other Lego game. It would make the level packs a little more worth the money if you ended up with the minifig you collected in game.