Alright I'll die on this hill.

Absolutely nothing being sold can't be acquired in game for a pittance.

The character edit costs 20k gold. I earned this before I even reached the capital city. For reference on how much that costs a night in the inn costs 2k gold and you're essentially forced to do that every single day.

You earn this so damn easily.

Equipment is all stuff you can easily acquire too.

Nothing feels like it has affected gameplay. None of these prices feel like they increased the in-game cost in order to force you to pay money. They feel like they're just there for the sake of the chance some shmucks might buy them for no reason. I genuinely don't know why "pay to win" is even being mentioned, it's a singleplayer game who gives a fuck? It's not multiplayer, it's not an mmo, it's not pvp, it's not multiplayer pve, it's a singleplayer game. "P2W" is literally irrelevant. Rift Crystals are currency for purchasing pawns (companions) and only applies to ones that are 5+ levels above your character, it's a limitation to prevent people ruining the game for themselves by getting overlevelled companions that trivialise the content. If people pay money for the Rift Crystals they're literally ruining the game for themselves. The last part about not being able to delete cloud saves to make a new character just seems like a lie.

The review bombing over this is unwarranted.

The game is good. The optimisation is bad, that criticism is warranted, it's a cpu issue related to physics people think, graphics settings do nothing to change it, Denuvo is probably making it much worse.

I recommend the game if you want real time combat that makes you feel like a DnD party. The game is somewhere in between Fable's goofyness and DnD with a hint of influence from the Lord of the Rings battle in the Moria mines vs the goblin and cave troll.