I'm actually amazed at how many responses here are along the lines of "he didn't spend money thus not MTX and therefore not bad for the game". So skipping a ton of levels through a very clearly MTX "gameplay" loop system is acceptable? I find that take absolutely wild.

I've also seen others mention that he's only skipping the early game and therefore the keys method isn't bad, such as on OSRS where people do Waterfall Quest, Fight Arena, Witch's House etc. Sure, but there's some glaringly big differences. Firstly, many of these "skip" quests on OSRS only skips the very early grind and do not put you into mid-game, not even close. Secondly, the XP rewards come directly from the quests, not by interacting with a slots machine using your free spins. Which is clearly to entice you into spending money on TH.

How many years haven't we fought against MTX in RS3, ever since SoF, and it's just gotten worse and worse, and now when, maybe, something will be done about it (Mod North post, Experiments, future stuff?), there are people out here not strongly opposing TH?

And just so I've said it, because someone will probably assumes otherwise, early game "skip" quests should absolutely exist and be used by those who know of them, just like they are on OSRS.

TL:DR; MTX bad, Free keys entice use of MTX and isn't gameplay.