If you just want the OP ninja that you've ranted about, take a few 8 day breaks, farm up the return coupons and boom you can magically afford your desired target next time their event comes up. I got tee'd off at my leader for paying for gnw1010 last year so I just did the above method and low and behold an event came and I had the coupons to get that crazy AOE goddess... then kinkaku came out as a easy pull nin making my efforts vain... but with the excess that I farmed and interest returned from taking those breaks I farmed and grinded my way to surpassing my groups leader and it felt so good to rub it in their face xD

Point is, P2W isn't always better, sometimes they're so used to the cushion that they don't notice how bad their team is, how little they've progressed etc. you have a higher drive as a F2P to earn every step, every inch that you can even if you'll never be #1, being bitter about it just makes it harder to make friends or enjoy the game.