Well, that's what many of us did. And we progressed.

Though I'd suggest a mix of ways to progress, I personally buy most things and try to enhance with the stuff they throw at us everyday (sometimes it works XD). And patience is key.

Enhancing can be really confusing when starting out, I agree.  Back when I first returned to the game back in 2017 I didn't know how to enahnce -- heck, I didn't even know you had to smash 2 of the same accessory to upgrade them, I was running base accessories -- and the game was way, way less informative back then.  Enhance percentages weren't shown, the community had to come together and provide spreadsheets, Google Docs, and share that information with others.  Online guides were much, much less.  I learned how to enahce through friends.  In some aspects, I miss that.  Specifically because it builds a sense of community, finding things out, and the journey of learning -- the game was much more sandbox-y.  But alas, this isn't the mainstream way.  And BDO has streamlined itself to be less sandbox-y to appeal to a larger, mainstream, audience.  This isn't to say it DOESN'T have a learning curve -- there definitely is, but it is MUCH easier to learn now, objectively speaking.

Here are some improvements:

1) Players can now bypass swapping toons to hold failstacks using Nader's Band.

2) Success rates shown.

3) Don't have to make a level 8 red toon for the SPECIFIC purpose of dying to town guards in order to downgrade Reblath.  Priest now does it.

4) Spend Blackstones for failstacks -- don't even need to mess with Reblath at all.

5) Spend Time-Filled Blackstones (Season) for failstacks through Fughar.

There are probably a lot more that I haven't mentioned.  While, yes -- the enhancement system is risky and punishing (I literally lost ~5 Billion in potential silver last night trying to enahnce accessories -______-) -- it's not as complicated as it used to be.  There is a learning curve -- but is alleviated by the plethora of online guides now available that us old players didn't have when we were learning the game, along with these QoL improvements.  There are things you need to learn for almost everything, that's the part of the journey in BDO.  To me, and that's part of the beauty of it.  But maybe we hold different values.  I like having to learn, trail and error, seeking guidance on my own, falling on my face, getting up, and learning from it, kind of thing.  Not really into handouts.  I like to earn my own.  So maybe we're different in that regard.  But if you hold opposite values, then the game has made it easier and there are LOADS of guides now.  Even streamers who only enhance on Twitch, go pick their brain.

P2W --  Sometimes I feel people use the word "predatory" with wrong contexts.  Do you mean predatory for gambling addicts and progression fiends?  Sure, I'll agree.  The sales are tempting for chronic enhancers and people who don't want to wait / grind for gains.  But predatory for players who just want to enjoy the game?  Not at all nowadays.  Inventory, Pets, Costumes, infinite horse stacking, instant-mid-game gear through Season (gear that pulls a WHOPPING 500+ mil an hour and is good for capped node war and siege), all things that are borderline mandatory to play are now given for free.  They even give out Maids for free, I haven't purchased a single Maid with IRL money and I have over 30 of them.  They give you these things for simply playing these days when it used to cost $, so yes, it's gotten "better", objectively speaking.  Again, for gambling addicts and progression fiends, it's P2W.  But for those who just want to enjoy grinding, exploring, learning new things in game, PvP in T1 node wars/capped siege -- not P2W at all.  All that's borderline mandatory to buy are a tent, which is $40 or so, and monthly Value Pack (Blessing of Kama and Old Moon Books can be bought off CM, this is how I get mine).  Considering you get the whole base game for $10 with no expansions for life, it's really not much IMO. 

TLDR:  Objectively speaking, P2W is less predatory these days.  Yes, in order to min/max everything, you need to pay more, but the game lets you literally make 500+ million an hour with Season gear (attain this in a week or less) right out of the gate, with zero P2W.  Crazy.  I remember making 20 mil an hour when I was new and thinking I hit the jackpot!!!

Don't enhance if you don't want risk.  Grind.  As Minyara specificed, you can get a PEN Blackstar weapons in roughly 200 hours or so.  PEN Blackstar being the VERY BEST weapon in the game -- let me say again -- BEST IN SLOT.  200 hours for zero risk BiS.

BiS shouldn't be easy to get.  So get off your bum bum and earn yours yourself.

1, That is if they swipe for em naders as the free ones alone isn't enough to avoid character swaping.

3, Yeah, but that feature is kidna shit, they could've simply added a button to downgrade it or prevent enchantign to 15 in the first place but no... an annoing mechanism tied to an NPC with an annoing animation...

4, You can buy low level failstack, but that is not enough for anything.

5, That is a noobtrap, as those stacks worth less than what the stones sell to vendor.

You can make 500m/h... with yellow scroll which is (mostly) a cash shop item. IDK if this was an irony here?

Also inflation ain't make the game any less or more P2W as the value of items getting more expensive with the inflation. The increase from grinding is just a way to make the stupider players feel they earn more while they don't. Kinda how IRL the lower IQ workers are happy when they get a wage increase which is bellow the inflation...

For 200 hours I expected all 3 pen black stars and 6 pen tungrads.

Games like BDO may have existed 15 years ago when everyone was playing Cabal, but not today.

Do you know why I quit Cabal after 3 years? Because I haven't achieved anything. And here history repeats itself: no guaranteed progress = no end. But let's not forget about the p2w event in which it was enough to have a lot of real money and buy the best items in the game - SIG Metal I think it was +15.  Best because the mithril was unattainable anyway.

So playing BDO is pointless, so 99% of new players disappear after a month as soon as they notice it.

They market the game as a "Sandbox" might want to look into what that means

"Black Desert Online is a sandbox-oriented fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Korean video game developer Pearl Abyss "

Hint using google says "A sandbox game is a video game with a gameplay element that provides the player a great degree of creativity to interact with, usually without any predetermined goal, or alternatively with a goal that the player sets for themselves"

Means YOU create the ending. If you didnt read the part of it being a "Sandbox" MMO that isnt PAs fault js . Also does state "endless possibilities ".

Are you even sane for saying this thing?

Tommorow morning close an appointment with a psychiatrist.

200 hours for a single item?

Then another 200 hours for your second weapon.

Then another 200 hours for your sub weapon.

Then another 200 hours for each armor parts and you need 4 of them?

Are you people even humans?

We are not Aliens that can live for thousands of years you know.

In around 40 hours you can complete Metro Exodus, that means you can finish 3+ games by the time you will get 1 single item in BDO.

In 200 hours you can decently learn a new lanquage.

Yet here you no lifers pretend that it is totally fine getting 1 item in 200 hours of non stop grinding.

Get a life.

Edit : people don't even want to log in the game and the company is throwing away good gifts as log in rewards to lure them into logging in so their numbers of active users won't drop by -30+%.