It's not P2W; it's pay for convenience
Calling it P2W is a little misleading. You can't really "win" LOTRO. It's pay-for-convenience. That's what the slayer deed accelerators and the like are too. They make it easier to get where you want to be.
Having said that, though, I certainly agree that the Mordor loot box gearing is dumb. I've never been one to go raiding for the best gear because I know that the next expansion will have quest gear that's pretty comparable, if not better. So, I don't bother with the loot boxes unless I happen to have a key. Otherwise I trash em or sell em (for the top level ones). If people would stop buying keys, then SSG would find another way to get their money. Realistically, though, micro-transactions are the reality of making money with MMOs. I just wish they would limit it to quality of life (premium wallet) improvements, deed tomes, cosmetics, and mounts like they said it would be when the store first came out.
But you can always farm LP by starting new toons, blitzing through the 3 starter zones, and deleting them (rinse repeat)!
More marketing of the game is better
If you guys keep adding these lootboxes, the game will fail miserably. Sure, these lootboxes will generate revenue but it won't last. Players will get bored within 2 weeks and quit. Please bring back the gearing system in Throne, server population was booming at that time. With these lootboxes, the game feels like a ghost town. I have been playing this game for 7 years and I love this game please don't force me to go play a different MMO because of these lootboxes and the dwindling server population. One advice, all you have to do to revive this game and generate revenue to sustain your business, you have to hype up the game with trailers and more stuff to do in game than just adding a lazy and p2w gearing system like lootboxes. SSG please take this seriously. This is your last chance to pull the server poulation up. It's already pretty low after the introduction of the failed Mordor's instance cluster.