Yeah,I never got why MK8/D was popular aside from being like the ones available to play online (aside from MK7 which is old and basically only a certain playerbase)... Ruined MK64 a lot for me, endless DLC, and way too easy and no motivation to play it at all.In my recent experience one game that is guilty of this is Mario Kart 8. It seemed like when I started the game there wasn't anything to unlock, everything was already available at the start. And then ofc there was the DLC which unlocked Mirror Mode (why the hell would they put mirror mode in with DLC anyways??), 200cc and other drivers/courses. I think that's a big part of why I really don't like that game. I loved Mario Kart Wii because there was a sense of motivation and reward in unlocking all the characters and cups. That's non-existent in MK8 and as such I felt no need to play Grand Prix, which in turn made the overall game experience quite bland.
Also, another pet peeve.. Steep curves... and unskippable cutscenes that doesn't really add to the story.