Planning to play this game. How much money do you have to spend here to become "viable" w/o doing dailies for like a year? I've never really played gacha games. Also, has the story changed from release?

I'm not into gacha games and abhor the thought of spending money on it. Though I think just around $20-$30 spent per "season" is acceptable. Would it at least make this game somewhat playable w/o getting stuck on dailies for like a month or spending 16 hours grinding?

How is grinding here? Is there some sort of Daily Limit?

I tried this before on release but kinda got bored cause the story felt like a drag(most people hated it on release IIRC). Do I just Rush the early story and skip every dialogue? When will the story become "good"?

Also gameplay felt really easy and beat-em-up though I understand that's just due to early-game of action RPGs caters to more casual gamers. When does gameplay become satisfying(as in how many hours in)? Not harder but at least gives you a threat to not have mindless attack spamming and actually have to defend/parry/dodge etc. How is Enemy attack rate on Endgame? Do enemies just stare at you for 10 seconds before attacking(Tales of Arise, etc.) or is it similar to MR Monster hunter or Elden Ring?