There is a simple rule in game design: The player needs to invest reasonable effort or take on dangerous situations to succeed, usually the more effort or danger the better the result. If you don't accept that rule aka axiom as true, we don't need to continue talking because you go against the combined wisdom of all game designers.
This attack is weird. For starters, not only did I never say that the game should be easy, an escape vehicle means one thing: the danger level has gone up too high and the player can't take it anymore.
- This does not invalidate the entire danger. There's a limit to danger that people can withstand, and it's different for every person, especially considering their playstyle.
- This whole argument seems to rest on the idea that people will use vehicle to bypass bloodmoon entirely every time. If they would do that, they'd have turned off blood moon from the start
- This discards the effort the player make before they get overwhelmed by the horde and decided they need to bail
From that rule follows that the pyramid design where the zombies just try to climb but never do the slightest damage is a pure exploit.
Let's talk about base design for a moment
The pyramid is an exploit. Sure, I can see that. I talked at length about non-pyramid base design, one with staircases and a single block wide walkway whereby zombies walk single file, letting themselves be shot at. This does not seem to violate the rule, I remember seeing variations of this base design since before A19, and they are for what it's worth almost as easy as cheesy base designs like the pyramids.
And as I see it, exploitative base design is simply a hazard of granting players freedom of building. They are allowed to do things that you do not expect. But really, this is not the point. Player should face the horde, I've never said they shouldn't
The former simply removes any fear, apprehension, tension, pressure you might have
and I do not agree with this.
I cannot speak for everyone, yet even a cheater that I play with -- one who spawns in dev items in basically every game he could -- does not do it for the sake of doing it. There's a reason to his madness: the difficulty has risen far above his limits. I can say for certain his limit of difficulty is very, very low yet I do think that based on the playstyle I've seen across my own sessions and YouTube, that is the only difference between his playstyle and others. He still experienced the fear, apprehension, tension, and pressure that everyone else experienced.
Knowing that you have an escape vehicle for when the excrement hits the rotating aerial impeller means preparation. A motorbike or car is not something you build early game, you need effort to get them, at least in normal gameplay. I don't see people neglecting the base defenses by exclaiming "eh there's a car anyway". Even this cheater still fights, he still builds defenses like a normal person would.
The tools he use to do it may very well be overkill, but I'd say his fear of dying is probably even bigger than mine, who is confident a pistol will do just fine. That's why he resorts to overkill tools.