I agree. F2P only works when a medium can be found. Telling people that it is okay a game, but not pay any money is not a medium.
I am a "whale", albeit small one. One thing I can tell you is that the store in the beginning took far too much advice from the free players and not enough from the payers. I never spent all the "money" I got from the founders package. I can't imagine I was the only one. After I left I heard they started to go "P2W". I honestly have no idea what it is that makes it that way...it might be.
But it all stems from a store that was too scared in the beginning to offer anything that I felt was worth my cash. Then, I would bet, once they income isn't where they need it, they made a knee jerk reaction to try and get the profits up. Probably the same thing that happened in archeage, when the store the people "loved so much" in the beginning turns out to have nothing worth the money to buy.
I don't mind supporting a game...I do not mind paying so quite a few people can play free. But, I do not feel obligated to. If people want me and others like me to pay for them, then they have to meet us halfway and allow stuff in the store we would like to buy.
I hear people say all the time, cosmetics only! You know why? Because they can live without them. They don't care about them. They may not even want them. Yet some how...I am expected to fork over the money I worked for, for them. Did it ever occur to them that maybe I can live without them too? Only allowing stuff in the store that YOU wouldn't want in the first place, is not a medium. Because, I don't want it either...and then we end up here.
And medium on my end isn't the ability to buy the best gear and weapons...or potions that make me stronger in PVP. I don't want that stuff either. Stuff that helps my grind...that is what I want. I work 12 to 16 hour shifts with about a 3.5 hour round trip to and from, and am often having to cover other shifts on days off. Time I do not have to grind for certain things. A couple of hundred a month in disposable income I do have.
A happy medium would be nice...but lets be honest. You can't make everyone happy.