There has never and will never be any pay to win. Everyone has access to all weapons at any time, no unlocking, just pure skill.
Up to 4 players on your team (ship) open servers with other players all sailing around all the time. You can get in an organic fight over treasure, or matchmake for ranked battles.
All of the progression is cosmetic based.
The devs have been adding content constantly since launch that fleshes out the game systems and makes for more interesting interaction.
I come back to this game all the time. Highly recommend.
I sold my switch as soon as the original SD was announced. Just got my OLED in the mail and couldn’t be happier; easily the best console experience I’ve ever had.
You mentioned LoL. Dota 2 is really fun if you guys haven’t tried it, highly recommend. Biggest thing to get used to compared to LoL is the movement (most heroes have a turn speed)