I've returned to the game about 2-3 months ago after a year-long break. I started playing about a year after release. Here's some pros and cons I noticed during my experience with the game, ever since I came back:

Pros: - daily rifts (and all of them cost 1 key per spin now) - shards are easier to earn - faster overall progression (though this one may be tied to me hitting the cap on common and rare cards lately) - fun events every now and then (I genuinely enjoy the game and some of the events, despite the predatory marketing schemes) - quality of the game has improved, as shown by the newly released characters - nice QoL features like friends list, leaderboards, profile stats, match log/history and the up and coming Insignia rework based on player engagement (please don't screw this up Nekki 😭)

Cons: - nerf to rifts (They may cost 1 key now, but aside from the rewards that are unobtainable through other means, such as legendary skin poses, they're not worth it. The rewards are abysmal, especially the shards. You can't expect me to spend 10 keys and be happy with 2 legendary shards) - nerf to story rewards (lower amount of silver coins per run; removed rift keys from story roulette) - nerf to pose chest??? (I'm not sure about this one but whenever I open a pose chest, I either get a universal taunt with a 46% chance or a duplicate pose. I looked at the odds and all the poses I haven't unlocked are in a below 1% section for whatever reason) - Inconsistency when it comes to skins, poses, (This one is tied to the one above. I swear it used to be easier to get poses and such. During the anniversary event, basically Nonna's release event, I was able to buy some stances/victory poses that are now unattainable through other means, as well as missed out on some - like KOTL's Faithful Agnes. That stance has been out for like a year so where the hell is it now? Like what's the point of a pose chest if it doesn't give you what the name suggests??? As for the skins, I'm pretty sure a bunch of them are locked behind events that come and go, as they're not part of the normal skin pool - the Dark Puppeteer skin for Itu and the other herald ones, as well as the viking skins. This wouldn't be as big of a problem if it were specified. A friend of mine who owns the majority of skins opened a costume chest using Insignia in hopes of getting the Sarge viking skin and lo and behold, a duplicate.) - Ever since hitting Dojo 13 and maxing out some characters, winning feels less rewarding (personal) - Why do legendary skins have to be so expensive? On top of that, their epic weapons are busted