Back in 2012-2013 buying premium items with tokens was the only way to get META builds. You could not get rank one without these token purchased items. Also back then, the only way to obtain tokens was buying them with real money.
with that being said, I get that the box system has to be a better source of revenue. As much as I hate the box system we may not have a game to play without it. We certainly wouldn’t have all the advancements of the game that we have today.
I quit playing for almost two years after the box system replaced the store. As much as I hate the box system and as much as I hate to admit it, the game is much better today then it was back then.