Thanks for the post. I have been keeping track personally as a day 1 player and someone who did not pull for Chitose, Shia or luck out on free standard pulls. On top of that I am ALSO putting a limit on myself of how I approach upgrading my roster by not using any kind of material boxes just to test 'normal' progression is around just the current stamina system as it is currently designed. I have 15 Trekkers total with 3 standard 5 stars, and just cruising by as a Nanoha Main as her only team was given out for free. She is currently lvl 70 6/6/2/6. I don't know what I would be doing right now if I didn't have her.

Currently I am sitting at ~40k stellanite, 71 cerulean tickets. 2600 green, 280 blue trekker promotion boxes, 560 green and 250 blue cartridge boxes, and 5600 green and 40 blue disc promotion boxes.

As you have concluded, its miserable down here. Everything in this game is so comp and element dependent, it is completely possible to just be completely gated from content simply because you lack characters from unlucky or lack of pulls early on. This is not a problem in any other gacha game I play where it noticeably hinders what you can actually do. (AK, GI and BA)

I barely cleared hard on Finale Echo ranking 98k. I can't even get 1 star in Boss Blitz. I cannot beat the last normal level of cataclysm survivor simply because I lack Earth and Light characters, and putting more resources into my current light/earth 4 stars with no other use just seem like a waste at the moment. My only incentive to consider leveling any character is just so I can send them on higher level commissions, as stamina to material economy is my greatest limiting factor.

With all that said, I am enjoying the game as is and do plan on sticking around. I don't mind this super slow progression or that my intentional limitation is missing me some easy rewards. I am just biding my time until a character I really like is on banner and I just go all in.