What is the point of these posts other than "I said so, now there you have it"?
Newsflash: Blizzard invests MONEY to make a game to play. OBVIOUSLY they want to get the money back. NO company in the world makes a game and makes it literally free to play. There always is a source to make the money back. There is no benevolent sponsor who says, here..I like to lose 20 million over the next years, make this game for free and let the people play it. I also like to read on forums while the game still sucks and I am an asshole"
In your case: You have to invest money to get past rank 18. Nothing more. Others will tell you they could do it without paying.
So this is really a good bye post?
You never win, because you will have wasted your money or time on some other garbage that we find laughable.