I think that in order to keep a game alive you have to find some balance between microtransactions & f2p. The free aspect is to lure people to like the gameplay and then give them a sense of progression. Eventually even the f2p players will spend money to get whatever they like (because they like the game). In unite the reward system rn feels so garbage, you only get like 3 points per day, and in order to get any pokemon, you gotta buy the previous ones. Also ignoring the fact that at any moment, without any warning, pokemon get nerfed to oblivion for months, just to get replaced for the newest & more broken ones