>>1205748Mechanically gacha just means games with a gambling system as a core part of the gameplay. Gacha games can have whatever kinda other gameplay you want. There's open world action RPG gachas like Genshin(it's shit), there's old school turn-based rpg gachas like Granblue Fantasy(it's ok), there's waifu raising sims like Uma Musume and Priconne(both are ok), and then stuff like PAD which are more like casual puzzle games.
There's even gachas that are pretty much entirely f2p like Azur Lane and Arknights with very low incentive to spend money. Other gachas are usually f2p friendly as well
except Genshit provided you have the patience to not impulse roll.
I wouldn't say they're exactly "fun" on their own but if you like having a game that you login to for like 15-20 minutes a day as a timesink then it can feel really rewarding when you finally have enough rolls to get your waifu.
Unless it's GBF, then you treat it like a second job and take sick leave off work to participate in GW.Gachas are kinda mischaracterized as something only for whales or people with gambling problems but the vast vast majority of players spend very little if any money. In like 5 years of playing gacha I've probably spent less than $60 total.
Personally I feel gacha mechanically adds an element of long-term progression based on random chance that might extend the lifecycle of single player games. Not saying they should be paid gachas or replace existing mechanics obviously, but for example if Pokemon games had a mechanic where you spend some free and farmable ingame currency to roll from rotating pools of Pokemon it'd give you a reason to login every day even when you don't feel like playing, which adds to the emotional value you get out of a game. The thrill of rolling rares through chance is somehow more satisfying to our monkey brains than just obtaining them manually.