Fantastic = Space combat, Duty officer system, Teaming with friends for missions. Awful = Lock Boxes, Time-gated content, lack of story content. Also, the fact that everything new that comes out is usually put right into the c-store. However, you CAN grind away for it. If you invest the time.
I've been here sense launch. I'm a big Trek fan...but once the game went f2p, I dropped the sub and enjoyed the game far more knowing i wasn't paying for it. Enjoy it for what it is and if spending a bit of money to get things you want works for you than do it. Otherwise, just play it for free and when it gets old play…