It's not so much a problem with their system itself but the game population. Uneven matchmaking since there's not a larger population in the higher lobbies. Mahj soul just has more tiers with a bigger player base so it seems to work better

Also if they would just let me buy the tables, characters, riichi sticks, whatever that would be way better than dealing with Gacha at all

Like besides the better UI and QoL, at least I get free draws on the regular in Riichi city. Unfortunately, it's ranked and lobby system is also worse than Mahjong Soul. Truly, playing Riichi Mahjong in the US can be rough at times, love the game but it's easy to fall off since it's already so niche