Yeah same jank is still there with added grinding on breeding your own dinosaurs. However it's still a good game. We have our own server running ATM and are on road to open first boss of the island.
The company behind it is greedy and doesn't really care about players but nevertheless you can play first ark and all it's DLC:s with only the main game which I like. Also no micro transactions.
The first film was awesome! Highly recommend. I heard the sequel is not as good though.