Yes I would. Three lines of thought:

One paying for premium is pretty cheap and often half off during holidays. Something like $30-50 for a year. And it makes the grind much quicker. They gotta run their servers and make money somehow.

Two buying premium planes at holidays is fairly reasonably priced, $30-40 dollars. You get exactly what you want the it makes the grind much easier. It gives you a ton more points making life easier. I recommend the Russian mig21.

So for 30$ once plus $30-50 the game isn’t that much of a grind, you support the devs, and you get to play what you want.

Three you can pay to just unlock normal planes you’re researching. I’ve found this to be unreasonably priced and see no reason to do this. For instance for US I’m slowly research the f14. Maybe a couple days and I could have it, but if I paid for the gold it would be something dumb like $60. I think that is never worth it.

I first started playing thinking I would never pay but premium and a good high tier jet are totally worth it. I’ve played almost 600 hours and bought four premiums and prem twice. So for maybe $120 I’ve gotten 600 hours and four exactly jets I want. That’s worth it to me.

Another thought, on the subreddit people often say if you don’t enjoy just playing a the grind to get high tier isn’t fun then you won’t enjoy the game. There is a lot of truth in this. Low to mid tier is actually in many ways more fun. WW1 is hilarious because there are a lot of newbs and the props turn so fast. WW2 is even more fun. I love my early jets like the f8u. So it was annoying to start not wanting to pay and just wanting high tier jets but honestly there is so many fun planes.

I believe I’ve got my monies worth haha ;)

Edit I’ll also add realistic if quite fun. If you want more arma like you might play ground realistic so you can fight tanks and planes.