Blog Post
I'm going to be very objective to your post and break it down into two very distinct understandings-
1. Paywall - You believe there is a paywall which is stopping you from enjoying this game, however this just does not exist. There are tons of content creators out there that show just how accessible the game is at a variety of levels. Whether you research and apply that knowledge is up to you. But in the medical field I equate that to me educating a patient on their type 2 Diabetes and various lifestyle changes they should make for long term health benefits, and various things they can research to make the best of their situation, however they choose not to because "too much work" or "Don't nobody got time for that" attitudes. Now ideally instead of looking at being able to spend $20 a month, perhaps save those "$20 moments" and collectively spend on extremely good deals such as around May 4th or other various opportunities. I have a gaming expenditure I set aside for myself monthly, to spend on new games, current game subscriptions, etc. When it runs out, it's out. It's budgeted in. I feel like some people say "I can't pay for this or that", and yet I watch them get a $12 cup of coffee from Starbucks nearly everyday, or they eat out expensively consistently, or drink copious amounts of alcohol at the bar. Not saying these things apply to anyone in this thread truly financially burdened in this thread...but I promise it applies to at least 1 person complaining about the paywall regularly.
2. Your GP - 8.6 million GP on a line isn't even half way to max anymore. 8.6 million is often typically over inflated as well. There is a heavy difference between 8.6 million lean well placed power and 8.6 million bloated irrelevant power. But those facts are besides the point. More importantly is understanding these marquees are not meant to target F2P players to complete on opening rotation until you're an end-game player. If you are 8.6 million GP I hardly think your eye sight should be set on Sith Era raid (the end goal of these characters releasing). As you said you don't have relic gungans yet. So I don't understand why you don't do what you can in the marquees, which with all the changes, allows you to come out with a 4 maybe 5 star character and with all the knightfall T1-3 farming that came around by the time it hits nodes you're looking at your last 125-150 shards.
NOW I will say this - My only critique is that I do feel at times CG releases batches of characters at alarmingly high speeds at times, which power creep can leave deficits in old invested characters behind and worthless at times. For more casual/F2P players can feel like the goal posts are moving faster than they can catch up.
This. I'm 12.5m and remember a time when characters like the Revans, GAS and even C3P0 seemed unachivable, now all are much more f2p friendly. Still it was only in the last year that my roster hit the point where I now go after new content, and even then (quite rightly) I will be 3-6 months behind those who pay. It was also the same with Raids- I and the guild I was in could never do CPIT but that was because we were mid-game.
Just seems a lot of players on here don't get that for new content you either pay or you are patient. Its a fair system.