My favorite was death panels.
"The government is going to decide who lives and dies by gatekeeping access to healthcare!" Motherfucker, that's what insurance does now. The potential failures of a collectivized system are treated with more scrutiny than capitalism working as intended.
As a rule, no, but I'll make some rare exceptions.
It has to be a small studio, I have to be pretty sure I'll like their next game, and I have to have enjoyed their past game enough that it's worth throwing them a few extra bucks.
For instance, I'm going to pre-order Slay the Spire 2.
Mega Crit is an indie studio.
I thought StS1 was exquisite, so I'm optimistic about a sequel from the same people.
I playes StS1 for hundreds of hours, so even if the sequel is a whiff, I'd have got my money's worth from them.
Similar goes for The Haunted Chocolatier, since I played the heck out of Stardew Valley.