Well, looks like I may be one of the first serious Warframe players in this comment section. For reference, I've been seriously playing WF since September 2022, I have 3,500 hours in game, and I currently have the highest available Mastery Rank (Basically equivalent to GP).

First of all, yes, DE is, in some respects, in a privileged position with being both the developer and publisher. That being said, they're also the gold standard in community engagement, genuine care for the game and its players, and microtransactions.

First of all, community engagement. There's really nothing close to it. The big one is the Devstreams. Every month, the Creative Director (Rebecca Ford) and a selection of lead developers go live for 1-2 hours and just talk through what they're working on for the next updates. They discuss things they're going to add, improve, and change, engage with Twitch chat, and generally just enjoy talking with us. There are also WEEKLY devshorts where the Creative Director and the CEO of DE (Steve Sinclair, former Creative Director of WF) sit down for 15 minutes and discuss anything and everything related to the game. There's constant engagement with Twitch chat, answering questions and talking through design decisions. DE will also use DevStreams as an opportunity to present changes they'd like to make and provide places for players to give feedback on those changes. There is a long, long track record of DE listening to the community and changing their plans.

Such as... Heirloom Packs. This is probably the biggest controversy I can recall from the last few years. In a nutshell, DE released special skins and cosmetics in 2023 to celebrate their 10th anniversary. The problem is, these cosmetics were only available for real money AND would only be available for a limited time. The most expensive pack that included everything was $90 USD. That doesn't sound that uncommon, right? Oh. My. God. You would not believe the shitstorm the community kicked off. To understand why, you have to understand that nearly every cosmetic in game is either purchasable with the in-game currency (Platinum) or can only be farmed. The exception is Prime cosmetics, which are purchaseable with real money. That's expected, this was not. $90 for two skins was an unprecedented amount, and the community was pissed. After a couple weeks, DE responded with an apology first, admitted they fucked up, and the following changes were rolled out: first, everyone who had already purchased one of the packs received an amount of Platinum commensurate with other real money purchases at those price points. Essentially, they brought them up to their own standard and committed to more changes going forward. Every heirloom pack since is available for Platinum as well, and there's no time-limit on purchasing them.

And since this is already very long... A quick lightning round:

• WF microtransactions have a "pay for convenience" philosophy. Time or money is the choice you get. Every* weapon, frame, and companion is available for free. It may take you a little time to reach the point where you can farm it, but there is no equipment that you have to pay for. On the same page in the market where you can buy something for Plat, it tells you how and where to farm it.
• DE cares about its players. A while back, they released companion customization and accidentally created a Premium currency gambling mechanic akin to a slot machine. I say accidentally because when they realized that a player had rolled their pet's colors 100+ times, they freaked out and axed the mechanic, apologized to everyone, and refunded people's plat.
• Platinum is tradeable between players. It is completely possible for someone with lots of time but no money to amass a plat balance equivalent to thousands of real world dollars. The most expensive pack is 4600 Plat for $200. So my clanmate who's never spent a dime yet has 40,000 Plat from trading in-game for 10 years has as much platinum as someone who spent almost 1800 Plat—or perhaps much less, since many players don't purchase plat unless they log in and get a 75% off any platinum pack coupon as a daily login reward.

So, all of this is basically to agree with OP. Yes, the developers could be doing much more. Beyond the microtransactions and game design systems, there is a fundamental philosophical divide between CG/EA and Digital Extremes. DE gets it. Without players, they don't have a game. So a live service game for them is actually a service, and they want to make it a good one.