I think people have VERY different definitions of what it actually means that a game is P2W. Some seem to believe that any monetization offer = pay to win. But it is really, really not the case.
GoW has never been pay TO WIN (or pay TO PLAY for that matter) - it’s always been pay TO GET STUFF FASTER THAN OTHERS. Yes, it means that it might be easier to win when you have the most recent and shiny and powerful addition to the game - but these troops or weapons don’t make or break our chances at winning at all. We can still win battles in guild events without them, we can still win PvP without them, we can still win Explore battles without them - using other troops and other weapons. As the discussions about counters to Stella & Wand & Takshaka teams clearly proved. Essence of Evil, Life & Death, Reflection of Good, Earth’s Fury, even Mang - these are still very much usable weapons, depending on the team! They weren’t taken away just because the devs released The Ruby Macaque or Wand of Stars - they are still here. Same with troops.
Yes, there are these 30+ weapons that are $$-locked, Deathknight Armor is also available for $$ only, and the few platform-exclusive pets too, and so are the old campaign pets (which is actually contrary to what the devs promised - the early campaign pets WERE available on Saturday pet rescues - can anyone still remember that it was a thing? I miss that concept). But really, these 30+ weapons are mostly 
, with just few notable exceptions (like Sun and Moon).
To see truly P2W games, look around in the play store… all these games that get you hooked and then ask for money just so that you can continue completing levels or play at all; games where the difficulty level makes the levels impossible to complete without boosters - which are rarer than dragonite in GoW - or must be bought for real cash; games that have huge maps on each level, but half of each map is locked behind paywall of sorts - either directly or for in-game currency that must be bought, and without that second half - levels are so/too hard to win, requiring 100 attempts each; games that have 50% of the cards/troops hidden behind the paywall - and after a month or so it becomes nearly impossible to win against them without having them… 99% of games in the play store are like this. GoW is really, really, very far from this, and is very unique in this regard. Which is, actually, part of why I bother to pay at all - BECAUSE it is my choice if I want to pay, not because I’m forced to pay or else I can’t play.
And also, people seem to forget that F2P isn’t really “free” either - even if you don’t pay with hard cash, you pay with your time and attention - something that’s really valuable these days. Possibly more valuable than real money at times, in the social media era.
For the one that’s closest to the goal, I still need 3 more shiny tokens.
