Personally, I'd argue that Warframe is "grindy", but that's OK because the grind is the game. You're always grinding for something, always working your way up one of the various progression treadmills, but that works because a) the gameplay itself is fun, so you're not just clicking buttons to fill bars, and b) there's such a huge variety of different things to progress and different ways to progress them that you can never get bored or feel like you're being forced into certain content to move forward. You always have the option to just switch to something else. Warframe is a massive all you can eat buffet of gameplay and you get to decide exactly what you want to take from it.

I've recently tried the game for a while and I have to disagree. From first impressions, the timers on crafting and limited inventory made playing 'whenever' feel bad (and unlocking the battle pass was even worse). Maybe that changes deeper into the game, but it made me quit.

Everyone said that, but iirc i've been at a point there's not much player for coop and everything is so bullet sponge, and i haven't even reach second dream or whatever dream that people so stoked about so it's not like end game or something.