This game is designed for The rich peoples nowadays
If you start the game and does not plan to spend in store you will end up quitting because you will be Stuck at all point, Xping, farming, pvping, and in general having "fun" of what the game can offer.
As said before, if they only planned 1 cash L2store promo followed by a Free event people would still be able to do something, but i totally understand peoples quitting, its sad because us old players don't want our game to look like that, and good luck to explain to someone "Oh you are not rich? then you can quit this game is not for you"
In order to farm you need very high end game gear already, and for a new players the only way to get those item is to get alot Adena, and since u can't farm at lower level you need store ...
All those exalted weapons/armors are good enough for 1 month of playtime till u get 105/105 and eventually 106-107, but those free gears are like garbage compared to all the top item you need to fight "MOBS" at higher lvl place.
And what is a game without new competitors, new players,
I've been here since 2006, and it's been a few years that all the people on "endgame mode" are the same, maybe in a year we see 10 new top player, and all of them spent 5-10-15-20-30k Dollar for their character. Insane!!!