I think the most important line of the article is:

"And the community is up in arms about it… or at least the part of the community that wasn’t paying any money and that gives a damn about being competitive."

I have been & currently am a patron of some of the games featured in this discussion, and this is kind of the sticking point when it comes to my efforts to see both side - it always seems to be the most negative & least contributing element of the community who forecast every pricetag higher than free as The End Of The Game.

Until there is some kind of counter argument beyond "make the whole game free and just sell items that are only superficially different, can also be earned in game and don't give any advantage whatsoever" - which appears to be the universal free-player manifesto in my experience - then developers can and should try pretty much whatever they like.