If what they want is just money, and they made the game become what it is now on purpose, for the sake of earning money, in my opinion they are just *insert synonymous for not the smartest in their room* honestly.
Baiting new or returning players to buy premium once is a short-term and not quite effective strategy to earn money.
On the other hand, if from the beginning they had put just a little effort to do things right, to care about the game's problems, players' thoughts, if they were honest and transparent, they would've retained a lot of the players who quitted because of what this game has become.
The game would be way more appealing to new and returning players, and I'm pretty sure it would be a way bigger benefit for them in the long term.
But they decided to do the opposite, and here we are, at probably the most decadent online game i've ever seen compared to what it was on start, and compared to what it could be now if they made somewhat good decisions (not even everything perfectly).
It's extremely sad, for me at least because i really loved (and still love) some things in this game