In regards to Base, I think the main point of contention is leadership intervention in what the chain should be used for. In traditional blockchains the foundation handling the chain just build the infrastructure and let the builders find the markets / onboard users. On Base, the leadership is focused on getting the next X users onchain, and they're willing to push initiatives from certain teams or particular mechanics they think will work. I'm not going to argue whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, just an observation. Base isn't the only chain doing this of course, many others have similar focuses and initatives. I think Base is just a bit more pronounced since there is a whole app and ecosystem revolving around the experimental concepts.