After 2.5+ long years of playing this game.. it has changed a lot.

Personally, im enjoying maplestory very much without nx now thank you very much, occasionaly buy some nx with mesos here and there to fund my self a pet and a shop permit and mts some scrolls.

The only thing i find game breaking in the cash shop is.... vicious hammers. 2 more slots on your items, A thing so game breaking.

Every other thing on the cs people can achieve alone, like
2x exp = So you train 2x the time, but you get to the same level eventually.
gachapon = you get mesos, you can get mesos by merchanting.

but getting 2 slots on your equipment...

People shouldn't be supporting this kind of thing. next thing we know an item that levels your character to level 30 will come out.
oh oops

So merchant for mesos and then MTS for a hammer?
Unless you're pretty well off you shouldn't really be scrolling most equips yourself anyway, and if you are then you can afford the hammers.

Also hammered items are tradeable, there's nothing stopping you from acquiring a +9 item without nx. With all the NX people using hammers the price of all equips are dropping in accordance with the new slots. For example 16 attack hammered gloves are now comparable to the price of 14 before hammers and so on.