It gets better. The game opens up once you have enough champs at 60 to actually mix and match your teams. Priority #1 is to get an ultra nightmare clan boss team going. At that point, you'll get plenty of shards.

it can seem slow and tedious to begin with but also becomes quite addictive , and you do unlock more content as you level up so the first few weeks of game play probably dont do it justice, to begin with yes chances of puling good champions is smaller because things such as sacred/ancient shards will be rarer for you to come by, but like the guy above says if u focus on a good clanboss team early you can build up some nicer shard collections, everyone has different luck on what champs they pull early

Yes. It's not an easy game. It does require some grinding. The pulls are paltry. But it is the same for everyone. Even the people who buy shards have the same pull chances... .05%!!! So believe me, it is the same for all of us. :)

Yes, it's a higher level of difficulty, requiring effort and wise decisions. That is why it is worth playing. 

Just don't spend any money because it's mostly pointless.