I cannot afford IAP, and most of those surveys are not available in my country (Theoremreach is not available at all, Fyber sometimes and Tapjoy is a joke). I got only to VIP1 and now I’m hitting the wall, because updating hero from y20 to y21 takes almost an hour of manic crafting.
It would be nice if at least SOME badges could be power crafted. For example, two tiers backward - if you have a yellow hero, orange badges and below can be power crafted no matter the VIP. That would still give the advantage to players who do IAP and are from more privileged countries, but also be playable for other folks.