Monetization is a tough decision. F2P w/Cash Shop is the easy way to garner player numbers. Box + Sub will limit gold seller/bots and "younger" people, but limit player count. MMO's thrive on player count, but at what point is a player an actual player? Does a 5yr old count as a player? Does a chinese gold seller count as a player?
Maybe a modified version of Box + Sub + Cash Shop might be the best option. Box price in place to slow gold sellers, Sub being optional with benefits, and Cash Shop strictly for Non-Combat cosmetics and fun non-p2w items.
An aggressive and robust security backend to prevent botting and gold sellers is a necessity for a F2P game. The gold farms are so advanced and automated it gets ridiculously hard to combat them without planning for them in development. Ban one...and they'll have another account up and running in under a minute.
There are avenues still unexplored for monetization in MMO's. It's possible to have the cash shop and not sell combat cosmetics, but nobody wants to explore them. I'm not against companies making money...as a business owner I'm all for it. It IS possible to blend the old MMO ways with the new. Nobody seems to want to put forth the effort to discover or implement them.
I know I'm not changing your mind, or even attempting to. I'm just thinking out loud. The MMO genre is in it's worst state in 20+ yrs and is begging for a new game that breaks some molds. I long for the days when you could look at a player and KNOW that they earned an item through game play and not their wallet. Maybe there's a way to have a cash shop and easily know what a player has earned? I believe a blending of old and new is the way the next successful MMO needs to go to be successful.
100% agree, f2p is the best way to go to get "player numbers", but someone who really wants the game to success, like I do, would understand than there's a lot of work and a lot of people who must eat, so I absolutely would pay again for the game if there's going to be b2p or f2p with subscription and benefits, or nice cosmetic shop with no p2w.