So I was fully prepared to go all nerd rage on the whole B2P thing, but I have to say I don't see a huge downside for me personally.
At the moment for $15 a month I get:
Access to all current content
Access to all upcoming content when released
Occasional loyalty rewards which have so far sucked
After this change I get exactly the same, plus:
Extra xp
Extra gold
Faster crafting
Choose my own loyalty reward with 1500 crowns per month
Like I said I was really prepared to hate it, but it's hard to see the downside, especially if I can use the crowns to buy DLC and then in the future the game becomes free...