When I first heard about this I was like "wtf they're doing lootboxes?" but then I actually read the article and realise it's just an advent calendar and realised the items you'll get by the end of it will be worth more than what you actually pay so I wasn't that bothered about it and this discount of items fits in with what a Black Friday sale is so really it's a nice mixture of Black Friday/Christmas.
Let's recap:
Regular Calendar - Price is $60 and all items inside are worth $175 to $200 in total.
Premium Calendar - Price is $75 and all items inside are worth $275 to $300 in total.
Those are pretty nice discounts. One qualm I see is, if 18 items in the regular come out at a cost of around $175 then each items original worth was about $10 one average and most $10 items in the store in the past wasn't that great. If one of the items was $40 for example that would mean 8 of the 18 total items would cost about $6. It's basically a balancing act.
Other negatives I can think of is you end up with items that to you personally may seem pointless or worthless cos you don't like them or they're useless to you, such as getting a tropical rainforest seedling kit when you're not even in the rainforest (as a random example, seeds might not even be an item in it) so in the end the worth to you personally may not match the price paid but then I suppose since all items can be giftable you could potentially trade with other people or sell in the marketplace.
I don't think this is as big of a deal as a lot of people are making it out to be and having a surprise item is always exciting. Had this been done at any other time of the year and were genuinely just lootboxes I'd see an issue but it's Christmas and this is more like an advent calendar so to be fair it sits with the season and advent calendars are traditional.
I think SBS should make sure all the items are really awesome just so those who complained ended up missing out so they'll kick themselves for not getting one. lol