And you overestimate how much people spend on e coins.
I just copy here what someone wrote long ago on discord.
suit each 2 weeks + combis
few scrolls from time to time if you want to trade good items
that's all
rest are totally optional or you don't need it very often
what you can get from shop? let's see
lens - you can get from merchant (lens + are just little more cd)
giant/quickness/evade - for free on 1st account
new pets - caskets
pet food - merchant /boxes
wing chest - buddy challenge
signature - level up reward
res orb - from drop too
res ring spirit - not often needed unless you want max lv or combine it for selling
cloak chest - royal is better than any in that chest and is from boss box/gamble machine
summons/gop/passports/shouts/toa/toh/mount chest - you can live without them, it's harder but not impossible to smooth play
real money shop in this game is very poor
There are people who spends tons ec or are ec sellers for gold agree.
But most of players play almost for free so it flattens out.
"
and underestimate the amount of money people spend on this game/server" you said
people you are talking about buy expensive stuff from other players for sick prices not buy from server as pay2win option, you don't see a difference.