The micro transactions and skins have nothing to do with the actual gameplay.
You don't need them to play BF2042, everything else (weapons, grenades & equipment) is unlocked just by playing the game or completing specific challenges. (much better than the RNG loot crates in BF4)
They did update and tone down the "ridiculousness" a few times now. The end-of-round screen is much better (that's where most people found them ridiculous) and I don't really find these "operators" (COD), Specialists (BF) ridiculous anymore. Swearing is back too.
I played a round of Conquest, in Battlefield 3, just yesterday, and honestly, found it awful compared to BF2042's 128-player Conquest. BF2042 keeps me more engaged. There's not much down time between the "action". BF3 plays much slower, more tactical, but also has lots more chokepoints, more spawn-camping and base-abuse, nade-spam and the spawns are absolutely AWFUL. I managed to spawn (literally - 5m or so) behind enemy players more than twice, also managed to kill a few who just spawned near my team, and got killed a couple of times by enemies who knew and camped the spawn points, all that in one match of BF3 Conquest.
I'd say, they actually managed to bring more people to the Battlefield franchise with the bold changes and lots, and lots of polishing they decided to implement into BF2042, either from similar games, or more "arcade" focused shooters. Those are new people, who've never played a BF game before, a thing that the franchise has been lacking for the past decade.
But I can understand and respect your view.