This whole comment is pretty silly and trollbaity, so I'll only bother addressing what I think was your primary snark.
> wait wait wait. you JUST said you were willing to shell out for a quality game upfront. After downloading it free and playing it is not in fact upfront.
If I don't ask for a refund after the first 15 minutes, it's a done deal. Most app authors would probably prefer that I get a refund instead of buying their app and leaving a negative rating.
Psychologically it is not the same. One action requires you to get out a credit card and then later do more work to get a refund. One of theM is actually free. Not to mention that this only covers 1 of the 2 major platforms. No free demo refund on iOS. What would you propose for iOS games?
> wait wait wait. you JUST said you were willing to shell out for a quality game upfront. After downloading it free and playing it is not in fact upfront.
Sure it is:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/2844909?hl=en
If I don't ask for a refund after the first 15 minutes, it's a done deal. Most app authors would probably prefer that I get a refund instead of buying their app and leaving a negative rating.