Let me guess the thesis here.
It's probably something relating to the life cycle of MMOs. The central part of his/her theory being MMOs start with a subscription model. It's popular at first then stagnates. Games then go F2P which increases the player base and makes the noobs easy pickings for micro-transactions because that's the easiest way noobs can "catch up" to the vets.
This results in a lot of cash coming in in a short time. Of course, this is unsustainable and the companies that do this know it. They're just trying to make as much money as possible in the shortest time in order to maximize profits, thus pleasing shareholders.
The MMO life cycle sort of reminds me of a star's. The 2009 move to F2P was DDO's supernova and as a supernova's brilliant flash signaling the beginning of the end dies down, so does the game after F2P. Until eventually both the game and the remains of the star collapse under it's own weight (mass in the star's case and broken promises/crappy implementations in the MMO's). What finally is left are white dwarfs and games in maintenance mode. Eventually, both will completely burn out and just disappear.
The star's life cycle may not be a perfect analogy but you get the idea.
Some games go through a faster life cycle than others (SWTOR vs. DDO) but I surmise, in this day and age, they will all go through it.
Edited: The key, of course, is to make good decisions before the F2P phase so the game doesn't stagnate. That whole 1.5 year or so period before F2P just killed DDO.