Mark Kern is against f2p because the it restricts development a lot.
in f2p, devs have got to design a game such players will naturally buy things without feeling overly forced to buy things. If they make the game where the store isn't used... then you have to rely on some pretty deluded investors to fund your product and not get anything back for it.
and they got to do this from the ground up because otherwise you just get the same shit that happened with FF.
I remember players back in Firefall complaining on how the store is so lacking of items and stuff for a F2P game. Players kept crying saying, "I want to support you, give us stuff that let us do that!" ... then we got a message from out community manager who said, "We don't rely on the players for financial support."
That probably confused a lot of people. It confused me.
It's like they were developing for the game to die within F2P. Firefall had no ads in the game for other real world products, either overtly or hidden, and R5 only at the end seemed to try to develop for players to support their game with small number of consumables popping up in the store.