I think F2P is only option how to make BF great again.
I found some old rumors about EA considering switching BF2042 to free-to-play and I think this could even make them more money because all rock solid fans already bought the game and I personally feel like not buying it untill its like 10Dollars in my country (We have stuff cheaper because we earn 3 times less on average than USA citizens) because I dont even know how good would BF2042 run on my budget PC and I also bought BF5, played like 30 hours and I feel like I never gonna play this game again even graphics and effects are great, its just not what BF4 HC Locker was for me. I really loved that massacre when you could just shoot into smoke and get double pick or spam there grenade and get 2+ kills just with that. That was fun and best Battlefield moments Ive ever had, just dumb massacre with ultra-low time to kill which I never found in BF5 anymore, not even BF5 HC.
I like the most Battlefield 4 Locker map HC mode, but its just too old now and it just doesnt feel good anymore.
I think you could make more money from free-to-play if your game is good at this point. People kinda buy skins in Apex Legends or Warzone from what Ive seen.
You could also introduce some kind of Ranking system so players play harder, I think it could work.
Free-to-play would also bring huge ammount of new players and Warzone 2 free-to-play! is like half year from now, I geniunely feel like free-to-play is an only option how to make BF franchise great again, free-to-play is future of gaming anyway, people dont wanna pay 50 Dollars for a video game especially when everything is more and more expensive nowadays and name of Battlefield games is already very damaged.
Battlefield just isnt what it was in my days and Id love to watch this game rise again, would also love to play BF2042, but I just dont feel like buying it. I mean it looks good in YouTube videos, but BF5 looked good too and it just wasnt it for some reason... I think most people dont feel about spending 50 Dollars on BF2042 anyway. Its just too much money for a game I dont even know if I will have fun with and if I keep playing it for more than 30 hours.