Overwatch launched in 2016 to critical and commercial acclaim. I would say the opposite, it's in the last few years that Blizzard seemed to really go off the rails.
Overwatch was the first Blizzard game that I liked less and less the more they patched it.
Overwatch is all about swapping heroes during the game
Blizzard even incentivised swapping heroes more in Overwatch 2 (30% ult charge retained, vs. 0 in Overwatch 1)
I tried out Overwatch 2, despite all the negative press it is fun and sweaty. I had plenty of fun despite not playing as Kiriko and I'm sure I could easily derive 10s if not 100s of hours before feeling a need to unlock Kiriko.
If a game is taking so much of your time and you have a job, why isn't it ok to just pay a bit to unlock a hero?
I'd take these kinds of monetisation over destiny 2 which didn't even have p2w or clash royale (before season pass)
It's just odd to think that a certain part of the meta is paywalled. It really messes with the sense of competitive integrity.
Normally I'd be fine with a battlepass, but I refuse to pay activision any money out of principle.