Arcane Raise, a bit (too) greedy.

Doesn't typically need outside confirmation if the developer notes as much themselves, I think. :P
I thought you were referring to DLCs, but as far as market items go.. market items far more often don't have in-game effects (if only for the sake of existing cosmetic features such as emoticons and backgrounds), so I'm not at all seeing the issue here. Hell, even items that do have in-game functionality, like CS:GO items, seem to more often be used for market trading than for in-game use. :P

It's your basic collection-based gaming concept, except the developer bothered to meaningfully integrate it into Steam- that is, for out-of-game display. I think the real issue here is that they purportedly used free artwork for it (and frankly, most of the images are rather junky regardless of their source), so charging for them feels dubious in its own way. Still, whatever. Makes no more or less sense than most of Steam's internal trading economy.

Deceit, dishonesty, or disrespect generally provide the motivation for inciting negative reactions to a business entity- if they're simply manipulating a market niche to their benefit, well, that's between them and the users that are interested in that kind of thing. It's not really something that I see reason to be critical over, any more than any other gaming concept which strikes us as stupid but others seem to enjoy. [I'm looking at you, social media farming games.]

Besides, the items you mention provide cosmetic benefit. By contrast, Tales' DLC you should be able to mimic with a cheat program fairly easily. I'd say the market items are still providing more distinct value, however little that may be.

In any case, paying for cheat codes is a matter of convenience- yes, you can work out the cheats elsewhere, but you're paying for a simple convenience. The weird thing about Zestria is the massive price tag for such, which spits in the considerations of players who are willing to pay for something that is effectively free. Arcane Raise (and variants) seem to all basically offer variations of the exact same cheap cheat DLC, customized to whatever version you prefer. That seems as reasonable approach as you'd find for cheat codes with a price tag on them?

As far as the market items, well, they're clearly absurd. But they're not the kind of absurdity that is misleading anyone. If someone wants to pay $100 for a cheap, barely functional cosmetic, well.. whatever, humans are ever-consistent in their peculiarities. Why would a rich individual pay a large sum for any dubious amateur art? Apparently when humans get enough money, there's a tendency to lose all grasp of its value. If I had a way to convince a rich person to throw money at me for something simple and stupid, I'd probably go for it as well. I mean, they're clearly not wanting to put that money to any meaningful use, so if they insist, I suppose I could function as a proxy for applying it to such a purpose.

So no, not despair-worthy, as far as I can tell.

Difference is it's not just a soundtrack or some fancy extra stuff, it's alot of extra fancy stuff and cheats with several DLC that's milking it (or taking the piss) that could easily have been put in the main game if dev wanted.
As Adam pointed out all 3 games are pretty much the same, and the least bit of effort put into them (especially if you can finish them within 1 hour).

I feel this in the same way as how Digitial Homicide was doing with their games (also given free, and how many liked them?)

Like ZUP creating hundreds of achievements, also taking the piss.