I've played 258 hours to this day, and imo, it's worth it
All of the operators are unlockable with Renown; I saved for a solid week for Hibana and Echo, the Alpha Pack system is quite good, and the gameplay is excellent. There was never a point I felt pressured into opening my wallet; some of the best operators are in the base game. If you have a group of people you can play with on a regular basis, the game becomes so much more fun, but solo queuing is still incredibly entertaining depending on who you get matched with.
It's fucking stupid of Ubisoft to add paid lootboxes, but, as pointed out by others, you don't HAVE to purchase them; it's all cosmetic anyway. Ubisoft is apparently looking to rework the Starter Edition's operator prices in the future, which should alleviate the main detriment to it.