Very well thought out and even if it were a scathing critique, why not? People don't have to be sugarcoated all the time, even game developers.
Your two points on pack openings crossed my mind as well. It would have been an incentive even for small investors/players like me, to get into this phase, when I could have opened and played with the new cards right away and only by opening, you would have earned the right to a potential airdrop.
But it feels like, this is an investors game now and the team tries to cater more to them, as to the broad playerbase. I may be wrong, but it feels like it. Short-term gains won't sustain a really great game, when the playerbase is seen as a cashcow.