Both the articles you linked are fascinating. I like the writing style and they bring up many valid points.

Logically, I believe that some version of Web3 gaming "play to own" or "play to earn" should be the future. How does the industry get there? That we still haven't figured out.

When I first joined Splinterlands, I figured the company had, or would have, plans to earn income through outside sources such as ad revenue, sponsorships, partnerships, etc, to supplement income from product sales.

If we can borrow ideas from Fortnite and other free-to-play models, I think we have the chance to succeed. We're starting to see some of that with the new skins released.

To answer the title question, I consider myself a gamer first. Tokenomics is secondary for me, but it adds a nice extra dimension beyond traditional gaming. I view the tokenomics as a game within a game, but secondary for me.