FWIW I think Payday 2 handled the DLC well.

There were no ridiculously OP guns or characters that were only available for purchase

Paid cosmetics don’t bother me at all

Players who didn’t buy heist DLC could still play the heist if there was an open lobby for it

Creating post-release content costs money and I bought like eight pieces of DLC over the decade that I played Payday 2 and never felt like I got a bad deal. Payday 3’s issues seem a lot more fundamental, like removing basic game mechanics (like melee??) that were available in Payday 2 and locking a lot of different playstyles out