So addiction in videogames is kind of a tricky subject because yeah, it's a bit of a different beast from most other mediums due to the variety of ways "addiction" can surface.

I think the reason addictiveness of a game is considered a positive quality is because of the general benchmark we hold for expected value in a game, roughly something like $60 USD for about 10-15 hours of gameplay. Games described as "addictive" tend to go far beyond that, with Skyrim being a noteworthy example, and it becomes positive because paying sixty bucks for a game you'll get hundreds of hours out of is absolutely fantastic value.

Likewise, the addictive qualities of freemium games hinge on their payment options and the players themselves and what they're willing to pay for. This is going to get intensely into the realm of personal experience here, so my point may get pretty muddled as I ramble on (and it does get rambly, apologies). I'm gonna compare two games I spent a good bit of time playing as examples of what I personally look for and try to avoid in freemium gaming: League of Legends and S4 League.

I've played League of Legends for about 4 years now, and my best guess is I've spent something like $4000-$4500 on the game over those four years, with very few regrets (most notably XP boosts and Blacksmith Poppy). Let's be honest, that is a batshit crazy amount of money, but I've played the game consistently at least once every couple days (usually once or twice a day) for those four years, barring the occasional binge on some other game. I'm totally okay with the money I've spent because it was purely optional and at no point did I feel like I was being forced to, since League doesn't allow the player to directly buy power in any way. While I probably could afford to be a lot more frugal, it's my decision to make.

S4 League was a different beast, and I didn't give them a dime. When I started playing you had the option to buy any basic gun or piece of clothing with the in-game-earnable money permanently, and while its "state" would decay, prompting more money for repairs, it wasn't an incredibly abusive cycle, and compared to all of the other games that gave you guns for a time limit, having a weapon permanently was awesome. However. the game blatantly sold weapons and items that were "exactly like _______, only better stat-wise" only for specific time periods (30 days, 14 days, etc) and only for real money, and those guns and clothes would just shit all over the arsenal of any f2p player who wasn't objectively mechanically better.

Then, after about a year, they removed the option to permanently buy weapons entirely, forcing you into the cycle of buying a gun again every month or so or, y'know, you could always buy stuff with real money... I left that game shortly after the no-more-permanents change and never really went back.

What I'm getting at is that my personal money spending doesn't usually tie in to any "addictive" qualities of games mostly because I don't enjoy games that force me to pay money to keep enjoying the game. It's a much better plan to give me the game and also give me the option to spend money to just make the game cooler without harming the core experience. Even excluding League, I typically spend a lot more money on freemium games that don't demand that I spend it on them.

Sorry that this got really rambly, it's something I don't talk about often so I had trouble concisely collecting my thoughts.