PNC is really good for F2P
Here's my current progress as a F2P in Neural Cloud
As you can see, I managed to clear most of the content, get more than half the achievements, and collect a lot of SSRs(3-stars) despite being F2P, and while it might take some time, in the end, your F2P character would be able to catch up with a whale's, so, if you're still wondering if this game is F2P friendly then... YES, ABSOLUTELY!