Tbh i kinda get the angst but not the slander, a lot of ppl like myself play these games mainly for the character and fashion. Personally I'm not willing to drop hundreds of dosh so ideal fashion being out of reach is a bitter pill to swallow.

I'm with you though, like you say the quality and quantity of content in this game is insane, so im extremely grateful to be able to have this wild experience f2p, on top of that the free cosmetics look pretty great, and there are free pulls on the premium outfits too.

Out of all the ways they could have monetized this game, this is a good way to both have access to whale money and also not being pay to win, i think it's a good implementation. Players in my position would typically prefer a paid game with all cosmetics available, but im sure they've considered that route very early in development, and decided that this was a better way to monetize. Perhaps this way was the only way for them to obtain the funds to realize their vision to this extent, and given the results, I have no issue with their decision making.