Look at LOTRO, great history, great everything, yet they failed to deliver as well and its now a p2w f2p game.
It all depends on how the game is managed, nothing more, nothing less.
People complain about clunky combat system, bad graphics, but tbh the combat is pretty much the same as targeting, no idea why they complain about clunky. Bad graphics? Well I do agree it sometimes feel like the characters are made of rubber, but I hope it will be allowed some sort of graphical mod in the end.