I am one of those, well not so much the complicated and what not, but definitely waiting for it to change its monetization model to either f2p or some other form, since it seems inevitable that it will come given how hard the game tanked, so I figure there isn't much point in spending money now, which isn''t to say that I find the monetization model that crazy, I have tried the game for a bit, and it is a solid game and looking at card prices in comparison with other digital CCGs it is more than competitive price wise (As in it is better than what the competition is offering), especially given all one can do just with the base game, you are mostly only locked out of competitive stuff.
In the end feel like part of the reason why the model is so badly seen is 2 fold:
a) valve has quite poor public image these days so anything bad they do is going to get quite amplified.
b) they had some of the most user friendly models in the industry with dota 2 and cs:go where all micro transactions were for the most part purely cosmetically (there was tournament related stuff and what not but that is a different story), that anything that involves gameplay features being monetized is going to be seen as a huge step down, and well it is really.
It also doesn't help that Gabe and the team were talking about how the money that people would put in would basically stay in the system, that things would be stable and what not, and in the end there doesn't really seem to be any mechanics to enforce that, it is all just valve being a bit naive, because as we have seen card prices for artifact are anything but stable
https://steamcommunity.com/market/listings/583950/110020
But yeah personally I am waiting to see what they do to revamp the model before I get into the game, not that I intend to play a lot either way, but yeah if they don't want the game to die they are going to revamp it in some form or another so might as well get into it then.
