I feel like you can still come back to hearthstone for free. It is worth checking out week to week to see if the tavern brawl is any good. There was about a month there where every tavern brawl was a blizzard attempt at making commander decks. They were awesome. Maly, 3 Velen, and Mind Blast.
When people expect Hearthstone to follow a similar cash to value curve to other F2P or other apps, they're forgetting it's almost literally Magic: The Gathering. It's meant to scratch that itch of collecting and deckbuilding, not P2W.