What fun portions are gated? Elaborate please. Because how I see it, all the fun stuff isn't gated at all. What's gated is cosmetics. oh noes.
I've not played, only watched, but here is what I have gathered
1. Useful unlockables in the chests include gear and each characters additional fatality/brutality (I think you start with 1 of each and unlock one more of each in the Krypt, correct me if I am wrong)
2. This gear is needed to beat the towers, so its a grind to access another grind.
3. (this is the one that would make me mad had I bought it) The Krypt exists in 10, but the chests are static. You can unlock the things you want first, in whatever order you like to suit your play, favorite characters, whatever. Now it is random. HOWEVER, the coordinate system is still in the game, so now it really feels like, "Hey, we need to pump some more money out of this game, scramble up those chests that were, at some point in development, static like in MKX"
So if youre just playing ranked and story, you really need to interact with none of this. If youre playing the other elements of the game, you need to hope RNGesus blesses you with loot drops instead of concept art in the Krypt, so you can beat those harder towers