Just treat the free version of the game as a demo, that still let's you to complete the game fully for free (including good endings and etc). Although the game was purposely designed to have only one play through per person (It was a whole gimmick behind the game), "Dev" version was created with infinite resets, which is not canon. Yes, it costs money, but game includes a lot of content for you to explore (which you can do for free in demo anyway). Free version mainly exists for you to try out the game and decide for yourself if you want to explore more, or if you're satisfied with a one time (intended) experience.

You can call it fraud or scam, or even paywall, and I get why it seems that way. There were good intentions behind it, and a hope to introduce something revolutionising to the gaming experience.

I've been giving out free Dev copies of both games since they were released. Any time a person wrote me an email, explaining that they want to experience the full game but have no money to buy the version, I'm just giving it to them for free. You can do so aswell. Hundreds of free download keys were given away by me personally. 

And as the other person mentioned, 80% of players reset the game manually anyway. It's been so for 4 years.

If you still thinking that it's scummy or fraud, you always can just rate the game with 1 star, and move on with your day, it would be absolutely valid. But I don't understand your encouragement for harassment. Be kinder to the world, and the world will be kinder to you.