As far as I can tell, it seems that there’s mostly relatively new players that express their concerns
about scarcity of ascension materials here.
I can certainly understand the frustration of not being able to max out the hero’s you have, and this is a spot every player experience at certain periods. First, when you get your very first 4*'s and maybe 5*, and later, when you are working on your second or third set. Eventually, it’s the 4* items that will be the limiter, while 3* items will pile up.
If you decide to spend early on, do some rolls and get some nifty 5*, you will realise that you got these kickass hero’s prematurely. Most likely, you also got some 4* and decent 3. These are the hero’s to focus on for the time being, and the sooner you understand this the sooner you can start enjoying the game (speaking from my own experience).
This is a slow paced game, and ascension materials are there to make the game last longer and to avoid a bottomless pit of class difference between millionaires and normal players. As it turned out, I never maxed out the very first 5* I got, and it took me about 7 months to max my first (usable) 5*. Did I have fun during those first 7 months? Yes indeed!