Well as someone who plays 40k, I would say Games Workshop believes it's the modeling. They push that a lot when you go to their store. The game to them seems to be secondary still but not as much as it used to. They made some big strides focusing more on the game.
For something like this, Kill Team is pretty new and the rules aren't anything like 40k regular is but they use the same models. If anything, it probably plays something more like Shadow War from last year, but even then different from that. For this, it will probably not take any vehicles so probably something like a Start Collecting box is a good way to get a decent start, though that will depend on the army. You will mostly be buying infantry so Start Collecting boxes with vehicles won't be a good purchase, but even then depending on how this turns out, you can probably start with a just a box of soldiers of some sort. Like for example, this box would give you 5 regular soldiers and an HQ. But I wouldn't recommend Harlequins as a first force because they are one of the most difficult to paint if you are trying for their diamond patterns.
As for why I play 40k, for one it's social so you are playing with another person in front of you. It's also a strategic game, though 40k is more a lot in list building not so much the strategy during the game, but your moves on the board is still important. There is also the boards you play on are pretty complicated and fun to look at. I'll link this video of a game played between the Space Wolves (special Space Marine force) vs Thousand Sons (a special Chaos Space Marine force) to demonstrate how it looks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW3MjQQerZY
Well I would say you can play regular 40k without spending so much on a large army. You don't need to have 2,000 points army just right off the bat. Even then, competitive is relative. If you are competing in big tourneys, then yeah $800 is nothing anyway. To play at a local store, you can get a decent force that you can work on for a while only spending on things when you need them.
That said, this is not even close to regular 40k. The rules are not the same as they are for 8th edition. This is something that is similar other games that is using 40k background. It's also hard to say how it will play. Right now if I had to suggest a competitive miniatures game without spending a lot of money, Malifaux and Infinity are two pretty good games that don't require a lot to play with a decent size force and be competitive. In fact, I'm excited to get some Infinity models myself after trying it at Origins as the game is a lot more reactionary and guns work where would think with accuracy penalties or bonuses due to length. But, Kill Team is a good jumping on point especially if you want to slowly build a force that would get you to a point to get into 40k regularly.
It could be too she was given the option to apologize or leave. It's not like the GW2 community wanted her fired from what I read, but wanted an apology of some sort. But it most definitely is a fireable offense as you don't attack paying customers that are giving constructive criticism. Especially one that has furthered the community probably more than she ever did or will have. Especially when that person was being pretty respectiful in their approach. I think we've gotten to the point that people really don't take constructive criticism of any sort well anymore. We should be able to discern between criticism that is constructive and destructive and it seems too often, both types are being lumped into the latter especially by a lot of creators. As someone who likes constructive criticism, it bothers me that this happens because constructive criticism is one of the best ways to grow and improve.
