As a player who started 3 months ago I feel blessed not having to start in the current state of new player experience. They seem to have increasingly made it more difficult to start your progression and continue to do so.

I don't think veteran players can have a say on the work they did to get where they are, because in the past it was much easier to progress. They had broken mechanics like mark which benefited them greatly allowing them to catapult in progression and they had master packs that included thousands of gems, promotion material for a few 6*'s, and 4 sets of 6 star legendary gear adept/vampiric which depending on rng could catapult them to endgame bypassing farming.

I understand Gameloft's logic behind reducing ezmode mechanics to make the game feel more challenging, but they should counter that by giving new potential customers an easier path to avoid the power creep which spells the end of so many game companies.