Cool story, bro.
It was like this when Paradox was niche company producing games for a very narrow auditory. And people were ready to endure a lot just to play such games - terrible bugs, not working gaameplay mechanics, strange pricing policy, constant flow of cosmetic stuff just to stay afloat and a lot more. People were ready to be free testers for the games they want, to help shaping it into something great. Everybody knew that Paradox "1.0 release" is more close to today "Early Access" than to complete game gameplay-wise.
Nowadays, Paradox is a big company and a big Publisher too - just go to Forum main page and count the number of games Paradox developed or took part in development one way or another. Read about their clear statements about how they want to focus and appeal to broader auditory. And they succeeded - both Stellaris and HoI4 became most sold Paradox titles. But the process of game development didn't change even a little bit - same horrible bugs and non-working mechanics, same "be a tester for free", same million cosmetic stuff and costly DLC with Add-ons. They have huge auditory and probably big on cash now, but somehow are still trying to pretend a small niche company they were years ago.
But a lot of people still go like: "It's a Paradox, chill a little bit, they always are like that". But thing is Paradox is nothing like it was. We must start addressing it like all other big players in game Industry. What people do when EA release another game riddled with bugs? Or Ubisoft mess up another title? A ****-storm appears. Paradox messed up TWO of their titles, one after another? "Well, it's Paradox, let's wait a year or two till they sort their games out", paying double the cost of original games on DLCs and cosmetic stuff". At least EA and Co sell Season Passes for their games...