False. Suppose two players are about to compete in a PvP match tomorrow, and have the exact same gear and item level, skill level, and play the exact same amount of time in game. Player A goes to the game shop, spends $1000 in tokens, and spends some amount of the gold on a couple Mythic BoE pieces, upgrading his item level significantly. Player B spends the day farming dungeons, but obtains no gear. (Or the two players are competing for a Mythic Raid spot, or in the Mythic plus leaderboard. It doesn’t matter.)
How did Player A not pay to obtain an advantage over Player B? I’d love to hear.