I consider Arena broken, even if the mechanics are working as intended.
Should it be difficult? Sure.
But there is a big difference between difficult and impossible when it comes to newer accounts having to contend with those that have obviously been around a lot longer or spent a ton of cash to boost up.
Even if Plarium intends for Arena to be an unofficial paywall, they need to do something to push that into the higher ranks so that there is some room for the newer accounts to be competitive.
I really think that long term they will make more money that way. A person has a lot more incentive to spend money (even if it's in smaller doses) if they have been rewarded for their playtime by making steady progress than by getting a few measly brackets up and realize that they could spend hundreds of dollars and still be fairly helpless for a while. Any rational person (especially if they work for their money) would make that kind of value analysis and come to the conclusion very quickly that spending that kind of cash for what amounts to at best some new champs to grind/gear up (and at worst a bunch of crap pulls) is a loser's game and will probably not stick around very long.
I would have already dropped more cash on this game if arena wasn't in its current state. I'll never whale out, but I make a good living and certainly have some disposable income I could be spending.
Instead, I'm trying to be patient and enjoy the aspects of the game that I can to give Plarium a chance to pull their heads out of the sand and do something. I can't say how long that patience will last, but eventually it won't be worth my time to play this game if the developers allow such a fundamental aspect of it to remain functionally broken.
If it were a case of just getting better, well, I'm doing that. The problem is that the competition is getting harder and harder at lower arena ranks faster than I can realistically improve my team. I think we are probably a few weeks out from Bronze 1 being full of end-game level teams (Not saying good teams, just ones that people without months of account building stand even the slightest chance against). I'm already seeing this in Bronze 3&4. If you think that's a good thing you need to get your head checked.