as in a character's dupe shards to upgrade right? - there's a replacement item for that in the battle pass shop but it doesn't look viable for us f2p - you can buy standard characters fragments from the shop with gold. every 60 fragments = 1 copy so it's another way to get them - for limited characters you need to use those white shards you get from gacha to buy them, i guess that's also counted as gacha
Tbh the market isn't even remotely the same imo. Most EXVS players I know don't play it. Also that the game is not even on PC to begin with, while Starward have PC client + mobile, so it makes sense to see it expand.
the arcade and console are diff department. there's no way they're going to let go of the arcade biggest money maker to home user easily. it's just business.