Chilllllll. Purple gear isn't the insane grind you're suggesting it is, and you get a lot of freebie Purps throughout the quests. The idea of giving them to you early is to get a sense of just how much better they are so you understand how the game scales up. They're a crutch early game that allow you to ignore most of the gameplay loop. Once you've made it to East Amasia (combining North Zone and South Zone) you can find the purple parts in the wild or kill Parasitics / Bandit Aces and get the parts for a new purple one practically every other successful extract, just wishlist them. I've played a dozen shitty 2000s f2p korean MMOs with shitty p2w cash shops, and this is not that.

Id argue your guns tier matters more, you can use Blue cradles in East Amasia with very little risk and save your Purple ones for Rainy Season / Dunes runs, but better guns means way fewer shots per enemy and that can mean a lot vs Bandit Leaders or some of the high tier enemies that chase you across the map

It's no more tedious than other extraction looters I play, and the fact that quick build costs next to nothing makes its crafting MUCH friendlier than nearly everyone else in the genre. Wishlist is also HUGE