I'm not a child and have a full time job and still hate microtransactions out of principle. The world does look enormous though. Buddy of mine is playing through and says it's awesome but he also knows fuck all about Lord of the Rings so I guess in his case ignorance is bliss. Tell me though, can I still hold a button and make orcs' heads explode at will? That was my favorite method of killing mooks in SoM.
I just don't get the massive amount of sheer temper tantrums people throw over it. Not liking it is one thing, calling for the heads of the people who made the game is another, and that's happening in droves. I'm guessing some are kids/trolls throwing actual tantrums, some don't understand business (because dollars to doughnuts, those microtransactions are selling enough to justify the backlash; I'd love to eventually get some numbers on them...for the record I haven't bought any yet, I may or may not depending on how long I play the game), and then those like yourself just don't like the idea in itself of paying for a game and then having to buy extra stuff, which is totally understandable. Then again, they are in fact totally optional, which is where my confusion in all the huge hate comes from. I'd understand if it was something huge like "buy this loot box to unlock another part of the story!", but it's almost entirely forgettable, menial things. I digress though. To each their own!
You most certainly can explode heads in this game. There's a lot of returning features along with just as many new ones. It's great because it definitely feels like a continuation of the first while refining the mechanics that weren't so hot and adding some new ones along with the obvious story continuation. On the other side of that coin, if you didn't like the first one, this one is so similar that it's not going to change anyone's mind in the slightest. And yeah I'm almost completely void of LOTR knowledge barring the massive obvious things like the main characters and huge lore points.