all microtransactions in a subscription game are bad. The fact that modern gamers just get on their knees and suck them down is killing modern game value
And you dont get to define P2W, P2W is different for everyone. The fact that everyones example is always "Its not going to help you clear coil so its not P2W" is flat wrong. Someones definition of winning may be collecting large amounts of gil, retainers clearly help with that.
I quit tera because I was so damn annoyed that all of the event items were temporary and you had to pay for permanence. Collecting event items is a large chunk of enjoying a game to me, so locking the rewards behind a paywall is P2W to me