That's just not the case at all. You can certainly buy mods from the Minecraft store (or whatever it's called). But you can also write behavior packs and make skins and textures without paying for anything (besides the base game).
My son and I spent some time making custom weapons and the like using a tool called Bridge (https://bridge-core.app/). It's definitely not as powerful as modding once was in the Java version of the game, but you can do lots of pretty wild stuff with Bedrock if you're willing to jump through the hoops.
Yeah, you have to buy it with "Minecoins", but I can't get too upset that Microsoft has allowed devs to monetize their efforts on the platform. There's still plenty of free stuff available and nothing to prevent kids (or adults) from taking a crack at their own mods.
My son was just recently playing with a site called Tynker, and without any help from me managed to get a custom item into the game, so if an 8 year old can do it, it's about as accessible as you could hope for.
This sounds quite interesting. I've really only spent much time with Java and although it has a great modding scene it is unofficial and nothing ever works with updated versions (My Python approach is immune to this issue as it uses official RCON interface).
I have always been put off by how commercial Bedrock seems as soon as you open it. But at the same time it sounds like interesting and official modding is available there.
My son and I spent some time making custom weapons and the like using a tool called Bridge (https://bridge-core.app/). It's definitely not as powerful as modding once was in the Java version of the game, but you can do lots of pretty wild stuff with Bedrock if you're willing to jump through the hoops.
One "mod" that recently caught my eye was this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUWRK0Jy9d0
Yeah, you have to buy it with "Minecoins", but I can't get too upset that Microsoft has allowed devs to monetize their efforts on the platform. There's still plenty of free stuff available and nothing to prevent kids (or adults) from taking a crack at their own mods.
My son was just recently playing with a site called Tynker, and without any help from me managed to get a custom item into the game, so if an 8 year old can do it, it's about as accessible as you could hope for.