What is the purpose of a sub?

I consider seasonal items being only on the Cartel Market (unlike any other MMORPG), and being their at extortionate prices seemingly designed to make subscribers buy extra coins if they want them, being ripped off, yes.

I have no issue with it being called that, it is what it is.

Well I can tell you the reason why I sub. It's because without a sub the game is not playable (in my opinion).

You can either sub completely or have the mini-subs (called weekly passes, but paying to get access for a limited time is a sub), but there is certain content that you cannot access without a sub.

Plus the restrictions (which at the moment can only be avoided with a sub) limit you (max number of daily comms is 175 with stuff there costing up to 300 (+25% non-sub "tax")) too much to seriously play.

Now I'm not saying F2P is too restrictive, rather I'm saying that EA/Bioware managed to find the balance of restrictions that angers both F2P'ers and Subs.
Subs just gain too little extra/appreciation to make it worth 15$ while on the flip side F2P (talking about preferred incl. unlocks here) is stifled with restrictions that are too harsh.

Leave those restrictions, but give players the chance to buy them off for a one-time purchase (let it even cost a lot).

Idealy the way F2P should work (in my opinion) is that new content gets added regularly which is free to subs, but costs to unlock for F2P (Like Section X Authorization). Subs should be the convenince package where you just get everything (except for fluff and ease-of-life stuff) while F2P you get what you pay for. Only works though if regular content updates come (or it will go the way of LOTRO where you kind of buy your Lifetime sub in pieces).

To avoid the more annoying restrictions. Plus you get coins every month for free. So long as ALL content i.e. raids, FPs, expansions, etc. are free for subscribers I'm fine with it.

Remind me why we are paying for Makeb then? The single planet "expansion" with no story continuation?

Oh boy this ship is really going to sink then . If the main reason to subscribe is to avoid those annoying restrictions then don't you think it's a bit dumb to have a F2P system at all? Think months ago. Months ago the game was losing subscribers at a pace of tens to hundreds of thousands every month. If a new player wanted to be paying for a subscription don't think you they all would've done it months ago??
If people were despising paying $15 a month in the past, let's not fool ourselves and believe for a second that new players will automatically fork over $100+ to be able to have SOME stuff.

You have absolutely no need for the seasonal items. They are additional and if you want them you should pay. I don't want them and so don't want my sub to pay for them, you do want them so put your hand in your pocket to finance their creation.

The sub should allow you access to all game content (IE: If there was a holiday event), but not all items.

I thought it was free to subs?

Source?

Also Altrimentus, f2p hybrid models are a wonderful boon for churn in MMOs. The other major hybrid f2p models rely on the f2p system to increase subscriptions as well(which they did and still do).

The f2p system is designed for those who are new to the game (To entice them into a sub) and for those who are not willing to pay the sub, for example the really casual players. The quality of life items (Extra storage and UI mods etc) are very reasonably priced to tempt these people into paying 'something' but also not so reasonable that the sub stops looking good value.

The idea is that you play for free, miss feature x, then buy it on an impulse because it is reasonably cheap. You then get several more impulses until you realise that you are almost paying the full sub price, then you start feeling like the sub is good value and you start to sub.

The expensive items are fluff and not needed but they appeal to the collectors and those with too much money (Or those who haven't learned the value of money yet and whose parents don't guard the credit card well enough) and are priced at a point where subs can wait and get things, but the impatient won't wait and will pay more.

From what I can see it looks like it will work very well. Yes from a consumer point of view you may want more value, but I can see them making a good profit from the direction they have taken.

If the holiday items are too expensive they won't sell well and will either get discounted or similar items in the future will cost less. The cash shop is still very new and they are testing the market.

IMHO, if you are going to play the game, you are only hurting yourself by not subbing.