'micro transactions everywhere, battle pass, subscriptions'
Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure they basically complement each other. The only transactions beside player trading is Atomic Shop and you don't have to pay for atoms, they can be earned trough the Season (or battle pass, as you could consider it) or from completing account challenges like "collect this many caps in this area" or "discover this many locations in this area", stuff like that. Now, the battle pass, or Season, a lot it open to everyone, with the exception of some items being locked behind a Fallout 1st "subscription". Pay attention to this. 1st is around $14 a month (to play 76 you obviously need whatever service allows online play so that's extra expense on top of what you already pay). But, the 1st subscription is not entirely a 'hey spend more money just to be special'. 1st is particularly a quality of life thing, it unlocks that bonus content in the Season, it unlocks special items on the Atmoic Shop, gives you access to special bundles and unique sales. You also get 1600 (I think) atoms a month per every renewal, as well as access to a survival tent and unlimited storage for ammo and junk.
I'm not saying you should purchase 1st, I'm just stating that the above go hand in hand and open up just a little more of the game. You can still play the game just fine without it.
To actually answer the question of should you play or not, that's really up to you. Get it, try it out, mess around. If it clicks it clicks and if not then you tried something new again. You could always look at gameplay on YouTube or read through 76 related pages here on the wiki to get an idea on how the game functions and if it's a style you'd like