This. There is very few private servers that do this activity, and the ones that do, stand out. If advantages are purchasable, that fact will be self evident even before you create a character.

When you make a character on a FC server you have no clue who is hacking, when they are hacking, and if you’re losing a fight because they boosted themselves through hacks or through legitimate play. The only time it becomes evident, is when they over do it.

On private servers with active moderation, cheaters can be found and banned before they enact any issues. Players can play knowing full well that the other players they interact with are legit. On FC servers you have to wait till they get bold, and then its a dice roll on whether or not your report on them will return any result.

The choice I had in this regard was simple:

  1. Play with hackers and cheaters.
  2. Read rules and policies of a potential server and maybe have to pick another if I don’t like how they do it.

The choice was pretty simple for me.

Another thing to consider. FC servers are full of cheaters and hackers because where else are they going to play? The can only exist on undermoderated servers. FC servers are FOR hackers and cheaters, as well as the useful idiots that get to play victim for them.