From the other posts, it seems clear the $25 breakfast is actually better than the complimentary one - the complimentary one sounds pretty good (30 items?!) so I suspect it would be hard for the other one to be $25 better, but not really a "scam", just "not a great deal".

Continental breakfast free, or full cooked one for $25? I'd probably stick with the first one, $25 seems a lot for breakfast, but not unreasonable when put like that. (I've had a few really, really lousy "complimentary" breakfasts - can't remember the name, but the Continental crew crash pad hotel at EWR had one bad enough I paid for breakfast next door instead! Meanwhile, the old Colony hotel in Toronto - sadly gone now - did a wonderful breakfast, but not included in room rate: probably well worth $25.)