Okay I'll bite. Being an alcoholic I do have addictive tendencies, however, these are my issues and at the end of the day it is up to me to keep myself in check. No one is making me play gacha other than me. I personally think they should be allowed not everyone has an addictive personality.
Well, a few things to consider.
One is that by now, the general population has an idea of how alcoholism works. We all basically know what behaviors can lead to an alcohol problem, how to recognize our own or others' alcohol problem, and how to get help and treatment for alcohol problems. That gives adults a reasonable chance of success to used good decision-making to avoid or manage alcohol problems.
By contrast, video game makers know a lot more about the psychology of how to make a game addictive than the general public, at least right now. Until the psychology of video game addiction is as well known generally as the psychology of alcoholism, most adults are still going to be taken by surprise when it comes to the addictive aspects of video games. It is even still debated whether video game addiction is even a real thing (there has been a consensus that addiction to alcohol is a real thing for a long time).
I think in a free society, the government generally should not be in the business of saving people from themselves. But, I think it's okay for a government to saving people from themselves when they aren't equipped to protect themselves, despite people's attempts to use adequate effort and good judgment. If you don't know what a compulsion loop is, it's pretty much impossible for you to avoid a compulsion loop, or to recognize when you are in one.
And, even though alcohol is not outright banned, it still get heavily regulated (at least in the U.S.).
It's also one thing to let adults suffer from the consequences of their actions; it's a different thing to let children suffer from the consequences of their actions.
I think Belgium was right to recognize loot boxes as a problem in need of regulation, probably wrong to regulate it as gambling because it's a different type of problem than traditional gambling.
Though now that I think about it, slot machines probably operate on a similar principle to loot boxes. While not ostensibly "free to play", slot machines do have compulsion loops and endless tiny transactions.