Is the Sea of Thieves Captains Update Unfair?

Welcome to the Day One Patch Podcast, where we cover the week's gaming news, rumours, reports, and more. This week Ryan, Tim, and Matt discussed the new Tomb Raider and its 'team of tomb raiders' feature. The guys raise questions on whether the team mechanics will be cheap in terms of gameplay, or will somehow bring forward a microtransaction agenda for the first(?) time into the Tomb Raider series. Next up, they discussed the retiring of Sony's accolades feature on PS5. A seldom used feature that most, including our hosts, forgot about entirely and never used.  Then lastly, the discussion turned to the new Sea of Thieves Season 7 update and it's slew of new features including the eagerly anticipated ship ownership, ship naming, and quick stock up + loot selling features. But with this feature locked behind an in-game currency paywall, is this a fast-lane that is unfair for new players? Especially when considering other equipment in Sea of Thieves is purely cosmetic, with no in-game mechanical effect.