You've been calling it "theft" or "shitty people trying to screw over others". It's that sort of language that I take offense too. Nobody is being dishonest, nobody is being rude to newer players or trying to screw them over and while I'm sure many newer players wouldn't like the format, many have no problem/like it as well.
I will say that both of my LGS have a "keep an Expedition if you open it" policy and did a "keep what you open" for Modern Masters formats (which never had new players in them) but that was mostly a function of those cards could easily be $100+ whereas even valuable foils in normal sets rarely exceed $50+. Those have been the only exceptions though.
There are three places here that do drafts.
1. £10 drafts, keep what you draft, some additional prize support.
2. £9 drafts, rare redraft. Not sure on their Expeditions policy.
3. £5 drafts, rare redraft in a random order (rather than by standings), keep any Expeditions you open.
3 is easily my favourite. I can draft fun stuff instead of just the money cards, but there's also no pressure to win. Sure, you might not get to keep the cool rare you open, but you're just as likely to get to pick something better regardless of your results (I opened absolute crap, but still walked away with a mythic and a foil rare despite being second last in pick order).
Also being roughly half the price of anywhere else really helps
I assume £5 drafts is less than the cost of three packs where you are right? I've never come across this drafting style. I guess given the reduced price and that statistically since more packs are opened you are more likely to open good cards makes this worthwhile compared to just busting packs though I can't say I'm the biggest fan of what that does to gameplay.
