Hello trapbob,
thank you for your honest opinion. As you may have witnessed already, we have other threads in which different ideas have been proposed already, but sadly it is not that easy to just 'regulate' it. Gold is a resource within our game just as time. Other people have more time to get an advantage, others have more gold, then again others have a lot of experience which also gives an advantage. There are many ways, to win a game. You said yourself you play since 2016 and never experienced this. Those people make it even possible for others to play this game for free for years already. We would not like you to leave after this experience and I would like you to think about all the other games you enjoyed since 2016. If you still decide to quit I wish you all the best of course!
I will also close this thread, because we a few of this kind already. 