I missed to chance to play CoH when it went free to play so Im not too sure what the options were.
One thing that I admit has upset me a bit has been the hostility towards F2P. The F2P conversion did not kill the game. Everyone at Paragon said it was the best thing they ever did for the game financially. The people who don't pay may not financially boost up the game while costing resources...
But if I can't play with my fiancee when the game comes back, I'm not going to be as happy. We're both pretty tight, and while I could try to cover both of us for some things, odds are at least one of my friends are going to want to not pay if there's that option. It won't make the game money, but it will make me more invested, they'll be likely to buy things and sub when they can, etc. Free players make the game better by providing an active player base and as such should be treated well!
So I'd really hope that any team would want to be in the more-inclusive brand of F2P than not. At first you couldn't even join a super group... and that would stop 9/10ths of the free people from playing. I'm okay with no ticket rewards from AE, but no rewards at all? Since no one will have bought going rogue if we dont get the account data, I'd say the alignment system being F2P really hurts no one. It just lets f2P players explore more content, encourage more people to play, etc.
If you're a person who can pay, and can pay more than just a sub fee, dont be angry at free players. Think of it as your chance to give to the community by supporting their play experience, just as they support yours