And in a p2w game the "free" paths make it nigh impossible to get to the same level as a paying player. For example if it did take 3 years for a non-paying player to be able to clear a Mythic raid then WoW would be p2w as it would be impossible to clear them within the life cycle of the patch or even the expansion.
With WoW we know that can't be the case as players have to be capable of clearing the content before they can sell the boosts.