What i mean is that if there were 2 of you, 100% the same, same gear, same skill, same partner but one of you would have smourne and the other wouldnt, the you with smourne would do a lot better.
Yes, you can overcome gearing differences if you are better, but given equal skill smourne is a distinctive advantage. One which is totally unobtainable (afaik) right now, unless you spend irl cash.
I dont mind the coin shop because just by playing the game you can catch up, its not pure p2w as it just saves time. Smourne however is only obtainable via irl money, which in my opinion is a problem.