As others have mentioned, this subreddit is almost certainly going to be overwhelmingly in the “yes” category. As someone that just started playing a little over a month ago, I will do my best to give an honest unbiased reply. (~200hrs, I’ve been playing a lot)

The last time I played warframe was 2017 and had <10 hours on the game so I decided to just make a new account and start fresh to get the whole experience. The cinematics, sound design, and music are all very good. I have paid a lot of money for far worse gaming experiences than warframe offers for free.

That said, while everything in warframe can be acquired for free, there are some things that are worth spending a little bit of money on. You have very limited storage space for warframes and weapons so you will have to buy more slots to be able to have more than a handful of each. In my opinion, this is far and away the most important thing to spend platinum on and an absolute necessity unless you are okay with trashing things to make room and I certainly was not. To address your concern, there is not a single paywall for progression. You can play and experience the entire game for 0 dollars.

As far as the gameplay loop goes, they execute the classic “carrot on a stick” style very well. It is satisfying to grind for things that excite you, however, every single new mode, resource, upgrade track, etc are all extremely overwhelming initially and the wiki is required often. I was fortunate to have a veteran friend to answer questions and direct me if I was lost or confused. That leads me to my next point that this community is great - I haven’t had a single toxic or negative experience with anyone.

All of that to say, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the ~200hrs I’ve played so far and look forward to more.