We get annivarseries, events, free mogs, mini-holidays like the transmog competition with what basically is free mog sets that are very good for mismatchings.
Tbh, I think people are just being too needy and forget all the things provided by blizzard and then they call it #notfree
So if blizzard made said loyalty merchants, people would still complain and say they feel unappretiated and say #notfree
The same goes for model updates, heritage armor etc etc.
In reality, everything can be partially free and partially not free.
For example, blizzard doesn’t need to add new customization or better transmog systems, but they still do. They do it for the fans, and by doing so they are gaining abit of money because it pleases people and they stay subscribed so in essence it is partially free and at the same time partially not free.
GW2 has a similar system where any day you log on you get a tiny reward. usually crafting mats iirc, but it cycles, so after a month of days logged on, you get a bigger final reward, then it cycles back. its a very nice “ty” system imo.
i wish they would do something with achievement points though why was there a need to make achievements reward different amount of points if the points themselves cant be used for anything. they should have just kept it simple, that every achievement earned = 1 achievement point.
if they were not going to reward something whats the point of getting 50 points?