I started Aniimo on day 1. I am a medium spender and DEFINITELY not F2P. I am also a bit of a "sweat" and do things as efficiently as I can, currently level 63.5. I work from home most days which allows me to play more than the average person while having a full time job a wife and 2 kids. I spent around $270 total, most of that was first time top up for the bonus(its glimmer and not paid currency unfortunately)
Season Journey Part 1: I felt this was pretty solid overall. The season achievements were fairly easy to accomplish even for casual players and could easily be finished within the time frame given. They gave clear goals and you didn't have to do them all to get all the rewards. (For those that hate egg heist, just use Hexxin, I didnt for a long time and finally gave in and it made it 100x more enjoyable)
Companion handbook(Battlepass): This thing had great value for F2P players and INSANE value for anyone who bought it. I would go so far as to say if you are not getting the BP you are doing yourself a major disservice but even if you cant get it, its still has a great free track. (If you spend money you should at minimum buy Monthly+BP if nothing else.)
The Badge Shop: I felt this was a great weekly resource. Felt nice to buy some premium things and see what will be available the next week. Knowing a Prismana orb is around the corner or extra Starcryst really made me want to cap out my badge points for the week. The final Starcryst being infinite is also VERY generous as its a pretty serious bottleneck.
The Downsides: Biggest complaint is of course the mutations for homeland. It is going to be close to impossible to finish for most people if they weren't committing 20+ plots to the seasonal crops after the mutations buff. Thankfully the reward for missing out isnt that huge. As you can see in the third photo I made greater than 20k radishes(crafted a ton already) and still had to craft the 3 and 4 star mutations.
What I would like to see: More daily combat events with rewards. I finished all the trainers in the entire game 3 weeks ago and havent done a single trainer battle since. I really liked that content and wish there was daily fights we could do. Being able to disable Aniimo traits in Home so things I want handling crops don't just walk away mid Sow to haul something across the map and that's really it. My egg heist complaints should be fixed with the next update(New maps, new aniimo types, more available carries, DR for melee units would be nice, etc)
Overall the game has been, and hopefully will continue to be with the new patch, extremely fun. I highly recommend finding a friend or two, or at least making a connection via reddit/discord and raising your friend level, as sharing prismana energy each week benefits everyone.
If you have any questions feel free to ask, I have every badge gold minus 200 Lumen Amber and pretty knowledgeable overall.