War Thunder's premium/ gold to pwn is actually less "pay to win" than you would think. How ever, it's much more "pay to progress" in the fact that once you start getting higher ranked vehicles, it takes AGES to progress without premium account or converting experience.

Of course this was back when i played it last something like a year ago, might have changed.

I like WT's ground combat much more than WoT's. The reason I stopped playing was a simple one. You can literally turn off 80% of the concealment on the maps in your settings, makes the game look like utter shiet, but tanks that think they're behind bushes end up looking like they're in the middle of a parking lot. Sadly.. so many DBags like using the minimal settings, so you can't even be sure if that bush you're hiding behind is even there or not.

This mostly effects Sim battles though, since realistic and arcade have the standard "tank spotted so here's his name and vehicle type" floating above em anyway.