Ok, so two things.
1. As stated by Eric, that wording is an error, it should say "need early access". This was stated a couple hours after launch.
2.The requirements were NOT a hidden little secret, they have been plastered all over everything related to the expac and was also mentioned in every livestream. You not knowing this is all on you.
So basically there was no fraud done by BW, there was you just not reading the information that has been available.