I don’t see anything wrong with criteria ... it’s a fair system ... people with no purchase history have to wait till after the people who have been to games before ... complaining that one can’t take a family member to Wembley final (but hasn’t been to Etihad even once before? - comment not targeted at anyone in particular but general example) ...
First it’s the season card holders on cup scheme, then season card holders without, then Cityzen members who pay £35 every year (£25 for kids) exactly for this previllage to be able to buy tickets before general sale (and for big games even that starts at some points, e.g. last year’s final started at 1,000 pts first for even Cityzen members) and then it goes to general sale with purchase history (for a lot of fixtures even at etihad like top six etc never go on general sale without purchase history) ...
As I said I think it’s fair criteria ... the only thing they’ve changed since the new ticketing system came in at the start of this season is that now you can’t buy a different age band than the member/registered account anymore, so a child can only buy a child ticket and adult can only get an adult one (which again it stops people buying for others e.g. friends buying for ones kids or kids account being used to get an adult family member or friend one) but then that’s what they’re trying to encourage, whose account is buying a ticket should be the one attending and not people reselling on etc.
Whoever wants to watch City, should have their own account with the club and if you then want to or can afford buy the appropriate membership else wait for your turn as per the criteria for each game which clearly steps down on the points system (which is altogether another debate, but in generalised terms it’s as fair as they can make it).
AND it’s not going to get any easier going forward ... with City’s name growing around the world and support growing with it ... so whoever wants to get in, get in on the system that is now and start building your own history/points etc. for future years ... a couple of years from now even Cityzen memberships will have points criteria going down like it does for seasoncards and also I don’t see any game ever reaching general sale in a few years time ... e.g. Liverpool QF last year there was also a time limit as to when you’d have had purchased your Cityzen membership, there was a cut off date to stop people from buying a Cityzen membership just to get a ticket for that one game ... which would be the case for later stages of CL this season again I guess depending on the draws.