These benefits are ridiculously overpowered. You would be at a huge disadvantage if you didn't subscribe and get these.
The pay-to-win gap over the play-for-free would grow even more with this. I voted no to a subscription. I know a ton of people who have a lot of success playing for free. They all agree that it isn't easy because of the benefits of "donating" really increase the the scaling of character development. But, they are still able to thrive as a F2P player in the current FS environment.
My opinion is that HCS needs to focus on revamping old content, implementing new content & actively bring in a new player base. These are the things that will continue to make this game better.
The only limitations a player has with FS is what they put upon themselves. My level has no bearing on yours unless you're +/- 10 virtual levels from mine... Then I might, just might watch you hunt to see can I steal your gold.... Other than that, Guest#[fill in a number here] is actually on equal footing as the player at or near EoC that has to wait 3 months for his/her stam to fill.....
Granted, improvement to old content as well as new content for said EoC people are needed.... These things do cost moneys... and ways to inspire us to spend will be necessary at some point. I just don't think the subscription route is the right one. I could be wrong.
I'm actually perfectly happy with FS as is, with the exception of recent bugs that have been left unattended for months (like GXP and the icons on the guild store and backpacks for some, but not all players). There are so many ideas that are gathering dust in these forums it's not even funny...
If things like this got addressed as they should, I might rethink whether or not I divert money from another game to FS. But I still don't think I would be behind a subscription, per se.... that would require a monthly commitment I'm not prepared to make for anything that's not a necessity of life.....