It only seemed that way during early release because there wasn't much deals to go on with yet but even then, the second you purchase flower gems or spend nutaku gold for the game, you already have an advantage over a free player, whether it be extra character slots, stamina refills or whatever. Sure free players can spend the ones they get in-game too but that means sacrificing FGs they could be to use gacha while those paying customers not only get the FGs obtainable ingame but FGs obtainable via cash and cash itself to spend on special deals.

It is a PW2 game.