so this years update was microtransactions? <_<
Not quite. You don't pay any real money for the in-game stuff, other than higher tiers of subscription giving you better codes for the "gift" system. The two codes I posted above are for the $5 tier, but if you're silly enough to pay $35, you'd get a code that gives you more gold, crafting mats, etc.
There are loot boxes (which I seem to get a lot of), and they require keys, but it looks like everything is earned via in-game grind, and it is a very heavy grind. It's definitely a more interesting method of progression than just getting (fairly insignificant) stats to level 10 as you used to, but it's pretty disappointing to have it implemented at this stage of the game, at the expense of however many more fights we would have gotten instead. I haven't looked at the new systems in depth, first impression is that there's a lot of bloat. Visual effects are a little better. Earlier fights seem easier while later ones are harder, which is sensible. The janky third-person prototype is gone. Skins are (ostensibly temporarily) gone, which sucks. I'm interested in seeing more fights in the future, though this particular update is a downgrade for long-time players. New players might find it interesting if they like the grind.