This is completely false.
"The government banned plastic bags, so as a result we are forced to use baby seal pelts instead, so sorry
"
There are monitization schemes that still allow leveling ingame to feel rewarding, without loot boxes.
Example:
- Every level grants a small amount of silver, which can be used to purchase any base cosmetics and any from the current pool of holiday cosmetics.
- Gold can be purchased with real money
- Daily/weekly featured items from out of season are cycled into the store for double the silver cost, or the original price in gold. New items follow the same trend.
Tons of ways to do this without locking people to earning 60 coins in a week while legendary skins cost 1900. If it were on par with OW1, we'd get enough currency every level for four entire items of varying rarity. 300+ coins, every level. If they were only worried about people earning exactly what they wanted and then losing interest, they could just cycle the available items daily at random and leave it at that. Maybe prices dependent on demand, like the more people who buy a voice line graduall increases its price. Literally anything but an insanely long time gate on the rewards earned.