CharlemagneRH: I've put at least $20 directly into WGT, gotten two $50 restaurant.com gift certificates, and filled out probably 8 surveys or so. *I* have supported WGT. XXBones has not.
So you have taken about 30 dollars out of WGT then. Got it. Well, combined I have paid probably 50 dollars into WGT, via sponsors. But we are only two people. How many legends are there? 1000 maybe? (For some reason it has shot up, was 260-ish after the change). And how many non-legends are there? A heck of a lot more than 1000.
In addition, most, if not all legends are self-financed via RGs, so aren't putting any money into WGT. I'm sure they have back in the day, but they're not any more (generally). It's the lower-tiered players who are putting in money, and given their tremendous numbers I'm sure that's where the bulk of WGT income comes from.
CharlemagneRH: And you want to know who is going to be in trouble when/if that happens? Masters that do not yet have master equipment. Not pros, not amateurs... only masters. That's it. Again, any decent player can move from amateur to pro with the starter clubs, and to go from pro to master, it would take a good with only starter clubs or a decent player with level 20 clubs. NO PROBLEM EXISTS IN THE AMATEUR OR PRO TIER. (Outside of sandbagging, of course.)
Screaming louder doesn't make it true - but let's look away from that for now. Everybody will have problems getting the equipment they want when the sale ends. That's the truth. I am quite lucky to have joined the site when I did, as I now have all the clubs I really need. People who have joined recently (joined, not re-registered) and in the future will not have that 'luxury'. They need to play through 60 levels.That's going to take months.
It's a difficult balance though. One of the upsides to this is that sandbaggins has been made more difficult for new accounts (won't have the clubs they need). But it's unfair for all players who can't buy what they want and previously could have bought. But don't come here and tell us this is a Master or Legend only problem. It simply isn't. Every player will face the same problems. And importantly, if new clubs are introduced they will not be legend-only clubs, so all players can buy them. In two years :D