New boxes are a con

That's like saying lucky eggs are crap if you use it's 30 minute duration to catch Pokemon rather than mass evolving. If you want to maximise their bonus, you don't just use them whenever, you use them when there's a good opportunity to.

You can get more out of a star piece by hatching eggs, you've more stardust from weather bonus, catching evolved forms, and catching more than 2 Pokemon a minute, or waiting for double stardust which makes that 50% bonus equivalent to an extra catch rather than half of one without double stardust.

In the largest box Star Pieces cost 11,2 coins each. At that price, they yield on average more stardust per coin than Incubators do (with 10k eggs) if you catch 11 pokemon during the 30 minute window. If you like paying for dust, Star Pieces are by far the best item for that so far.

So pretty much if you grind 50,000 stardust you will pick up an extra 25,000... might be worth it

I hate to admit it, but I kind of agree with you on this one. The only time that this would actually yield impressive results would be during double stardust events.

I’ll buy some of the next set of boxes, the ones with raid passes.

I was actually under the impression that Niantic would make the Starpiece a new, individual item available for purchase at any time like a Lucky Egg is. But, it seems it is a temporary item like the Super Incubators are. If it was a permanent item in the shop, I would've considered saving up coins from gym defending to get a couple of them, but I think I'll heed your advice for this one.

Trolling effort 3/10.

If all the dumb money grabs by Niantic, I would have to say this is not one of them. I mean it is all about money, but people have been complaining about stardust since the big gym update. This finally gives a way to significantly increase stardust without an event.

The people saying this is nothing, are delusional. This is a major boost in stardust. Does it make sense to pop and random star piece? Of course not, but that isn't any different than sitting in my house during an event. If I go to a place like the Mall of America, use a star piece, combined with the new weather spawns, I can rack up a good amount of star dust at any time, regardless of their being an event.

And as others have pointed out, you can combine this with egg hatches and events. You can make huge pay days in the future.

This game is pay to win. I am thankful for a way to pay for star dust. Judge me if you will, but how many people go to a bar and drop 50 bucks on drinks they pee out at the end of the night?