I agree with you on some things and have comments on others:
- Getting to mythic feels as empty as the void. There's not a lot of incentive to even try to get there, and when you actually get there, you don't feel much. I have no issue if the game wants to do something different than the typical "let's just rank up!" like a lot of games are doing, but there has to be more to encourage people playing more than just the weekend. In the current climate, it's very clear that all the pros give zero crap about the weekdays and the quality of play and decks is vastly different between weekdays and weekends. It's been this way since I played the game in 2020 and there's no sign of changes coming.
- The sanctum actually changed from last time. Back then, the cards were much more powerful so the snowball effect is harder. Now, I cannot deny that it rewards aggro more than others(even though a board wipe would net you great amount of points) but the power level of the cards are fairer compare to before.
- Pay to win is an overrated concept, but there's no denying that you get more options when you pay, and the flexibility to play anything you'd like to play (like I am more of a control player but I am sorta forced to play aggro or midrange because I don't want to pay up). A healthy card game usually have at least 1-2 viable low cost archetypes though.
- Meta stalling is nothing special in a game that have expansion only once in a blue moon. Most other TCGs put up new contents at a more rapid pace to shuffle things up but not GU.