Still the best CCG I've ever played. The fact the Valve pulled the plug on it is a tragedy, but sadly hating on it was all the hype of winter 2019, and people love to hate. Economy was its downfall (apparently), and even though developers added enough ways for obtain cards for free (or even play with whole deck without buying it) to never have to pay a cent, the hate hype could not be stopped, nobody cared about the quality of gameplay (which is SUBLIME and absolutely unique), or the polish, or potential. Memes and drama are where it's at, people love mocking AAA titles and companies, and when they get a rare chance to do it, you can be sure they will milk it to the max.
Even having to wait a while for matchmaking, I still keep coming back to it, nothing can replace the sheer satisfaction of winning a complex game against a good opponent in this game. Maybe now that it's free, more people will try it and form some playerbase for Valve to give it another chance? Probably not.
But one can hope, right?