I feel like the players fighting the bosses are getting cheated... I find that the full boss experience really starts at the terminal. Why not insert some nice low paying levels before the bosses, so that people aren't getting cheated out of playing the rest of the game? If they only want to play for half an hour, that could just as easily be arranged- we have the daily.
And I just don't like the arcade fee because I'm lazy and cheap.
I do feel like I'm being incentivised awfully hard to prefer Missions over Arcade, and the puny crown fee is a not-so-puny psychological deterrent. I'm not really bothered by it, though, because missions allow me to dip into favourites like Scarlet Fortress and Rotten Metropolis, Sky Islands and Lichen Colony at will, without ever having to spend any energy on stoopid Treasure Vaults or other stuff I don't find satisfying. So... +1 to dropping the annoying fee since it would be nice for a lot of peops, though I'd only be using Arcade much if there were more gates with no Treasure Vault/Graveyard depths.
As for changing the missions, I'm kinda mixed. On the one hand, I'm totes against removing an option that a lot of people enjoy because "the full boss experience" is something else and we should have both options be that something else, but on the other hand I think it would have effects on the economy that I'd personally like, and I'm selfish. I'd feel less pressure toward Royal Jelly Farm (bad internet day) and Charred Court, (good day) being able to spend more time in lower-paying stuff that I happen to find fun. As is, my greed for moar lewts to try out drives me to spend play time doing things other than playing with those coveted toys. :( I want to play a variety of stuff, but I also want to not delay my acquisition of all the shiny toys I want by what will probably add up to months, so I feel like I'm being beaten with a carrot.
I'm all for decreasing the payout for the boss missions to be in line with Arcade play without invites to skip the first depths, though, and maybe a bit weaker than Arcade. IMO the player should be encouraged to choose which content to play based on the player's subjective idea of "the full experience," which I think means that nothing that might be some one's idea of fun should be dramatically eclipsed in payout by something else, but apparently Three Rings thinks differently and I think that if we could understand why that is, we'd be more likely to think of something that might look like an improvement to them. /wink, /nudge
Or we could remove mission payouts after they've been completed... that way they could just do them from the arcade and get the same experience. (and take advantage of the no arcade fee better.)