But these improvements alone do not fundamentally change the game play in such a revolutionary way that as soon as I learned I had to "pay to play" some more, I rushed to get my wallet

It's a fun way to play with your friends and try to beat them and doing it multiple times without having to commit to a full game

If timing the B release is too difficult, you can switch it to auto and it releases it for you (much less fun that way personally, though it might be more fun for grandpa)

The graphics improvements are more subtle and aren't as dramatic as, say, the improvements they made to Mario Kart 8 over Mario Kart Wii, but they're still very good.2