Yes, of you spend over $1k on the game you gain access to beta-testing etc.

And the most scary part? Plenty of people do spend this much money - I know many Carrack owners, for example, and this ship costed, when I remember it, $1200. Yes, $1200 for an in-game ship, and there’s plenty of buyers.

Heck, I know a person in Ukraine - not a high-income country by any standards, GDP per capita sitting at ~$5000 - who spent about $6000 on the game by hiding huge portion of his income from his family for years.