That's just it though. The initial batches (Ace, Shanks) were no good. None of those are actually good characters. The first batch was Baroque Works, which was also really weak, outside of Nico Robin, who's still more of a support piece than a foundational starter.
It doesn't matter if you're F2P or willing to pay some money for gems. The best start in this game is with a 6* Sugo-exclusive. So if you start with Rayleigh, Whitebeard, Boa, Sengoku, or the upcoming Strong World 6*, you're better off with that as your core BEFORE any other rolls. The content's still there. The only thing missing are bonus gems, which, even if you throw away the equivalent of 400 gems as gifts from daily logins and other bonuses, would still be worth exchanging for a start with a 6* unit. If you're botting the reroll process, you could feasibly have TWO 6*, which is insane.
There's no way you can argue about there being too much content or behind the curve when there are people who jump into the JP version specifically for it having more stuff/more to do/more to pull.
Remember that the entire model for this style of gacha game is that we're all extremely impatient. For drops, for XP, for anything. If you break this one rule and wait, you come out tremendously ahead.