What difference does it make? The former would be complete pay to win and even these guys wouldnt be that ballsy. But cosmetics, mounts, potions etc is the staple of EVERY FREE TO PLAY game. NOT subscription game, but free to play.
They came out with the straw man argument that they werent going to sell zones and instances. Big frigging deal, no one else does either, except for Lotro and those are so cheap that you can make more than enough to buy those in the game with earned store credits. Or just buy a reduced box for 10 bux or less and get everything.
Just because theyre not selling 'content' doesnt mean jack. Theyre already pay gating A race, we can debate if that is content or not but I suspect an overwhelming majority would say a race is content.
If youre paying a sub you should have access to EVERYTHING the game has to offer, end of story. Theyre the ones who went with the sub model and got buried for it. So now 6 months later to run an end around and get people to defend them for selling stuff in a store (whether it be in the game or a website) is just stupid.
I cant wait for the first 'store exclusive' to hit and seeing how people will react. I suspect the usual people who wouldnt find anything wrong with what Zenimax does would love it, most wouldnt.
They milk the people they can for as much as they can for as long as they can. When they figure out a way to make more money they will change the approach.