Why not both?
It's been a little while since I last played (don't have the time to maintain a solo game), but it still seems quite active. The subreddit certainly has a lot of activity.
The thing is, most f2p games rely on an enormous community in order to operate—that's often their core feature. Huge battles, short matchmaking times, etc etc. When you start introducing MTXs that alienate the vast majority of the non-paying playerbase, you lose players, and thus diminish one of your primary 'features'.
It doesn't make much business sense in my eyes: Even whales stop playing, and paying, if they've got no one to use their OP stuff on.
I've always quite liked how Planetside II dealt with this. Sure, the implants are a teeny tiny bit pay to win, but nearly every single weapon was situational. Sidegrades are the reasonable way forward.
Same here, and some of the games I've spent most of my time on are totally free e.g. Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. Averages don't apply to individuals I guess!
Nope, and that's the point made in the article too.
That makes sense!
It's the cut content aspect that really irks me.
Hey Cy, thanks for the comment! You're right; research is key, and nobody forces you to pre-order. It isn't a bad practice in terms of what it does itself (pre-ordering collector's editions with physical media might be a good idea for example), but it is a bad practice in terms of what it enables.
Those little pre-order bonuses are, in my opinion, often something that should have been bundled with the main game without needing that pre-order bribery going on. Lo...
If it wasn't EA that was involved, I might be a little more charitable.