Quit your p2w apologizing. You can pay for an in-game advantage. qed.
There seems to be some prevailing attitude that unless patronage outright gives you a 'I win' button, then it's not pay to win. I don't think I've ever seen a game that does this. If paying to achieve an in-game advantage isn't p2w, just what is?
See, this is the issue. I agree that the vehicle upgrades are blatant p2w. Weapon frames? I don't think so. This is a FPS, after all; the outcome of combat is always going to be determined more by active intelligence, reflexes, game knowledge, and (naturally) luck than by what gun you're using compared to the other guy. In the vast majority of cases that I've seen, people whining about one gun or another being overpowered are those who get killed a lot and can't figure out why, so they latch on to the easy scapegoat. Coincidentally, the p2w label matches that very well.
That's the issue I have with the people who automatically assume that "pay to unlock the basic form of guns that are at least plausibly describable as sidegrades" equates to "automatic win button, insert cash here". This isn't an Evonyalike where absolutely everything is improved by dumping cash on it, and it isn't an RPG where raw numbers matter more than player ability.
In short, if people can go around in FPSes doing well with the shittiest guns, the problem is not with being able to unlock guns slightly earlier by paying cash, it's that people are willing to latch onto any excuse for why they aren't doing well.
The vehicle upgrades? Yes, they're a problem. Unlike the guns they're very clearly direct upgrades which can be bought with cash or certs (while the infantry upgrades are only available through certs), and they give very clear advantages. Issue, which I have already clearly acknowledged.
Guns? Not so much. Unless you're trying to claim that in every FPS ever made the people who have been playing for long enough to get more guns are automatically going to win every round because they have better guns. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's not how it works.
I'm not practicing apologetics, I'm calling out bullshit on both sides of the line. Making vehicle upgrades available through cash is bad (though not nearly as much as some games), and citing every possible thing you can buy with cash is patently absurd, particularly when you don't have a statistically significant advantage drawn from it. You might as well claim that the camo patterns you can buy are p2w because they make it easier to blend it with the landscape or some tripe like that.
If there were significantly better guns that could
only be unlocked with real cash, that would be p2w. That's very clearly
not what this is.
On a slightly related point: Like all games with progression, you get exactly as much out as you put in. If someone is concerned that they're not progressing enough because they only play a couple hours a week, I don't think it's out of place to question why the hell they're playing a FPS (of all things) to unlock shit rather than to have fun pretending to murder people.