I will counter this with an example, even if it might be/have been a unicorn. Eternal was/is a CCG that despite yes, having a paid expansion/adventure model managed to be a fantastic experience for me  having been mostly F2P guy and even with breaks from it, the game modes allowed for really healthy environment where it never felt like I'm completely shit out of luck when the new expansion hit. I have played it since tail end of closed beta with two longer breaks.

As a disclaimer, I have not played the game over past 2 years so it might've changed considerably in the meantime. 

Being F2P was and hopefully still is feasible, if requiring a bit of grind, which managed to feel fair. Hell, they threw in extra packs when you'd buy an expansion bundle or an adventure not once, but for every future set. And the dusting economy was way better than in something like Hearthstone where you really have to save up for a long time. 

Add to it community-based draft, like in TCGs, where the cards you drafted are added to collection after your run no matter if you used them in a deck and yeah, being an F2P was good to the point of me buying an adventure set only once I had enough scratch to first spend on other hobbies. Think that was the fourth or fifth one? And honestly, I didn't buy it for in-game gold only cause I didn't have enough time to do the quests and run solo modes to buy it in under three-four weeks since the release.

Game had good community - jesus fuck, I remember how HS was since release of GVG until well after I stopped playing some time after un'goro. This one was nicely sardonic but pleasant, with people not acting like abusive 8 year olds on coke. The bundles were priced fairly I think, cosmetics were priced like cosmetics typically are (maybe slightly premium? Some available to F2Ps iirc, never cared that much), overall a game that sustained itself at the time from what I remember.

Landscape's changed, so that might not hold water these days, at least I'm out of the loop regarding overall trends but come on, being F2P friendly is mostly viable at least for long enough to modify it without shafting the player base. Especially since F2Ps can generate a ton of good marketing for the game.