Most competitive multiplayer games are free nowadays: cs2, fortnite, apex, warzone, pubg, rainbow six siege are all free. You are not forced to buy any skins to be any better in the game. Unfortunately for the ones that haven't gamed that much over the years, the skill level is insanely high in most. But there's a thing called skill-based matchmaking in most anyways. Free games adds the downside of people smurfing/ cheating. But I would say most of those games try to combat it even though it ain't easy to do that (except for cs2). Singleplayers from indie devs are king rn and usually the cost is around 30$, or just don't buy on release and wait a year or 2 for insane price drops.

I don't really understand the complaint tbh. The only game that fits your complaint is CoD multiplayer.