Except no?
That's heavy gambler's fallacy speaking.
As far as getting good value out of your spending, then objectively speaking, steps 1 and 2 are a bargain simply because a normal 11-pull would run you ~$50 vs. $3/$5.
Anyone who wanted to roll would obviously jump on that. If they get burned by it, they obviously don't lose as much money, so they'll shrug and call it a day.
If they were shooting for better results, they would've jumped on the previous deal, or wait for one where they could pick their own gold.
Even previous step-up gachas had $10 steps for a guaranteed gold, not $20. It makes more sense to wait for those.
Again, I'm thinking you're overestimating how impulsive some people are, or generalizing the whale population as "anyone who spends, period".
I mean, fuck, if I got bad NG rolls, I'd sooner use my FGs than spend more cash.