Overwatch launched in 2016 to critical and commercial acclaim. I would say the opposite, it's in the last few years that Blizzard seemed to really go off the rails.
I think Overwatch was a sign of things to come. The loot box monetization, the focus on competitive play to the detriment of other elements, and the very rigid structure of the game (can't choose map, role queue) all felt like downgrades from Blizzard's previous efforts. At least the gameplay was good for a while.
Overwatch was the first Blizzard game that I liked less and less the more they patched it.
As someone who grew up paying £25-60 for a brand new game, I find it pretty insane that we've been trained to want games for free despite it costing millions to develop and run dedicated servers for millions of players.
I tried out Overwatch 2, despite all the negative press it is fun and sweaty. I had plenty of fun despite not playing as Kiriko and I'm sure I could easily derive 10s if not 100s of hours before feeling a need to unlock Kiriko.
If a game is taking so much of your time and you have a job, why isn't it ok to just pay a bit to unlock a hero?
I'd take these kinds of monetisation over destiny 2 which didn't even have p2w or clash royale (before season pass)
Overwatch was the first Blizzard game that I liked less and less the more they patched it.