Currently, I’d say this is not the case. The content gated behind CHL isn’t sufficiently different enough to justify buying it. As for the gameplay, I wouldn’t say it forces you to pay anything. Currently that’s just a misconception, though it might change in the future. I’ve already covered why the CHL is a waste of money currently, and I think we agree that purchaseable keys don’t do anything much. Though as for this topic on hand: just remove the tier cap and have rewards come normally like they did before tier 99.
Let me make it clear: while CIU is indeed designed to be a P2W game to an extent, it’s hardly that in its current state