I dunno... I kinda think it's actually more genuine? More honest? It's early access because it's not feature complete, and all the major milestones are just making it closer to completion, and generally are not charging for them. Using new features to advertise the uncompleted game makes sense, because maybe it wasn't ready for some users in the first few iterations, but after a few milestones they might feel it's worth it to jump in.

Meanwhile, a AAA game will label itself complete, then sell you things that they had planned right from the start of creating the game bit by bit, claiming they are extras. It's not like they just spur of the moment designed and made them after release. They were already working on it when they released the base game.