Yeah, hard to criticize the model when you can just get everything you need for less then the price of a AAA game. It just makes it a “free to try” game, instead of a truly free to play one, and that’s fine.
And besides, in recent leagues they have gone less hard on the specialized stash tabs model, and more on the cosmetic one. They haven’t added a league specific stash tab since delirium league, and that was over 3 years ago.
It would be nice if they didn’t, but every class is a character with a semi-established personality and story, so it makes sense for them to be gender “locked”. The NPC characters also react to you differently based on who you play. It’s mainly a difference in character design.