I have only one question which I have outlined far broader in a comment.
If paytoplay or staketoplay as it was put in the steemitblog
doesn't really matter to me.

My question is:
When will they announce how this will work with earning (via playing) XPs - or will this originally announced feature come at all?

As said, the question is detailed broader above.
In short why it is so important:
It is the basis of decision how to interact with the game and how to conduct ones approach and
how to market the game to possible outside (non-steemit) players (especially if we could consider the competitors like Hearthstone or Gwent (this smaller one more in the steemmonsters range)).