It is but it's also one of the few options available to devs. They can sign up with a big publisher and then be beholden to them financially and creatively. Or they can try the kickstarter route, or they can take out huge loans or investment and be beholden to them. If they're lucky they can get grants from governments but that is sporadic and uncommon. Or they can scale back projects to reduce financial risk.

Some devs can self fund once very successful, but even a successful dev like the makers of Subnautica won't have lots of money on hand. Plus even if they have cash, it is also about risk and sharing that so they don't go completely bankrupt on one project and all their employees lose their jobs.

Early Access has its down sides for definite but it does allow game devs to get revenue in while developing, and also (if done well) focus on delivering a game the players actually like. The biggest benefit is definitely that it allows devs as much independence as feasible.

Of course for the players, it can be hit or miss but that is the risk with any game. And no one forces anyone to buy an EA game - if you don't like it, don't buy and wait til 1.0. That's no different than waiting for any game to release so not sure what the problem is from that point of view?

For players in terms of a pure "investment" then of course it's a bad deal - the only return you get is the hopeful 1.0 game, and you get no share of any profits. You're actually just another customer, who has been tapped very early. But again, it's a choice and gamers can just not buy early access.

I've bought quite a few games via kickstarter and EA routes, but only games that I'm passionate about and are relatively niche (like small indie projects, or genres that don't get much mainstream action now like Adventure games). As much as I enjoyed Subnautica, I personally wouldn't buy its sequel on EA except maybe if it was very close to release.