Gacha games are indeed gambling. If you consider all gambling to be irredeemable, then calling them trash as a whole is reasonable I guess.

However, it is inaccurate to say that gacha games as a whole are just gambling. They have other qualities as well, with varying levels of investment and care put into them. Sometimes the effort they put into everything else is minimal and they are basically just gambling with a thin veneer of game on top. Other times, they put an absurd amount of investment into the game, story, and music.

MiHoYo, the developer of HSR (along with Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero) are the later type. MiHoYo has more money than God, and it shows in their investment into their games. The games are absurdly high-effort productions with more polish than any AAA game studio.

Personally, I am very averse to risk and uncertainty. I dislike the gambling aspect of gacha games (not just on principle, but also in my enjoyment). However, I still play some gacha games because I enjoy other aspects of them. So they’re not just gambling. But they are gambling, and it’s fair if people avoid them for that reason (especially people prone to problem gambling).