What drew me into this game was the art-heavy design. I appreciate how much they invest into assets in and out of the game; for example the original soundtracks, or sponsoring the philharmonic orchestras - they didn't have to do that.

They've moved far from it now, but before they became Hoyoverse their mantra was simply "Tech Otakus save the world!". You see their earliest games (most which never left china) and you definitely get that vibe that this simply started as a few gamers wanting to just make something for themselves. I'm sure the payoff 10 years later was beyond their wildest dreams.

I wonder if they could do it the other way - Fate's gacha has free skins, but if you want to unlock and use them you then need to roll the character. This seems to turn around the audience problem, where the skin becomes bait for a characters 3rd or 4th rerun banner, etc.

It could possibly work, but generally the default skin and character itself is appealing enough. They don't really need another reason on top of that to pull. Also, Fate can simply make a bunch of alts with new kits for that 1st banner revenue.

To explain to non-mobile players: "alts" are basically copies of usually poopular characters, but packaged as a new character. New lines, new skills, maybe a different element/role as a whole. It may or may not be used as a way to reuse assets depending on the quality of the game.