I think Ragnarok is official map because it's going to have all the content and be chill to live on like the island and the center, scorched is dlc because it's extreme survival harsh weather conditions and it's a set biome, it's almost a different game.

I've paid 20 for 3 maps I didn't like on other games, I got over 1000 of playtime out of scorched earth more If you count time raising dragons on the island and riding dragons and golem on the s well worth the money to be fair.

It's a pretty obvious business risk decision really. An example of backlash for releasing as DLC for example is the royalty negotiation with the mod creators and possibly leading to a conflict of interest if they did get offered employment. There was no up front investment, and a small cost to bringing the map in house that there was no requirement for ROI justifying DLC and the backlash that comes with it.

They might've offered jobs to the mod devs (maybe) and possibly a small fee. WD incorporated someone else's work into the main game. Ragnarok was a mod free for download for years and developed by non-wd staff. The point is, they invested $$ up front and therefore as a business required ROI. That's the controversial part that you can feel free to disagree with. They felt releasing as a DLC would give them better ROI than including it in the base game. WD invested $$ into this content which by default means they needed to recoup this investment. Scorched Earth was developed by WD in house containing new content that is reasonable to argue wasn't considered the base game at the time. If you want to understand why SE cost money and Ragnarok doesn't, it comes down to business:

Ark scorched earth download free