Yes exactly this. I did not want to pay for clones, I advanced my main to BCC and promoted one of my alts to Era main.Then I deleted the clones tomake room for new, rolled a slew of new alts in BCC, and one in Era. After what I see many did the same (or the other way around - keep one in Era, rest to BCC).
And many plain did not bother playing Era (and a few not BCC) which would probably not have been the case, had the clones been free of charge.
ANd now they are totally closing down the cloning The WoW: Burning Crusade Classic Character Clone Service is Retiring Soon - #4 by Merath-everlook