Greed? I disagree. I think of it as paying for quality.
They release new aircraft - 1 each month with outstanding FM, DM and visual model. How is that any different than what HTC provides? 15$ a month - and you have to be online to play it?.
Although draconian DRM is annoying. If server is down, I no longer can play even offline.
There is NO comparison to Aces High. Aces High is a monthly payment to play the game ONLINE. We do NOT pay for each patch or update that comes out. Maybe you're on a different payment plan, but I know *I* won't have to shell out an extra 5 bucks to be able to fly the Brewster or I-16 when they're released.
If the flight, damage, and visual models for these aircraft are ALREADY PRESENT, then why not make them flyable from the start? They either did it to rush it out the door, an excuse to make more money by charging to "activate" these planes, or all of the above. Shady, and I'm not going for it. This isn't paying for quality. This is paying 50 bucks for an incomplete game, and an additional 5 bucks each time they "activate" an existing aircraft as flyable that should have been available from the get-go.