Yes, but indirectly, it is the company that encourages or rather forces users to use those ways, as even if the user himself is not keen of using this way, with time he will have to as what other choices are left other than quitting the game? Who would keep spending 100 USD or more every season for such a game only to put his team to a level that will allow him to challenge and be competitive for the competitions (including events) he has been put in? This is madness. What the company is asking for is very unreasonable. This is game focused on mobile platforms and it has lots of flaws and limitations, but they asking money maybe more than what much better games on better gaming platforms ask. Another downside is how inconvenient this game has become, especially when there are events.
One thing for sure, Nordeus asks for too much (money, effort and time) but give little value back in return. What is worst is they tend into making changes, introducing things and so on that only make the game further a pain to play or make users get further angry.