Played a lot of MMO's over the years and l2 as to be one of the worst in terms of the cash shop. almost every other game you can farm or grind end game, paying only speeds up the process. lineage 2 you need to pay cash for basic needs and not to mention end game as most of that is RMT.
Also blame the rich on chronos also who hog up all the basic stuff in there WH to manipulate the market for own gains on the RMT market.