I'm a free to play "grinder". I squeezed out 2x L15 and 1xL9 last conquest, along with a bunch of L3s. Those I had within 1-2 wks of the old cross expiring. Which means at most they only missed 1 wk of GAC out of the 4 months' time they'll be eligible.
This conquest I'll bring 10-12 to L6 and depending on what I get, I'll take another 3 to L9 before stocking up on DCron Credits to be able to get the fancy new ones the next time they drop.
All it takes is a bunch of Shard Shop currency and a willingness to use it to purchase DC Credits combined with simming the end-of-sector DC nodes for mats.
If ppl spend, they should get an advantage. That makes sense. How else would they pay for the servers and dev time? They're also a for-profit company. I loathe unregulated capitalism, but some level of capitalism seems to be necessary for human flourishing, and there's no exception to food and rent for programmers.
But whether they get an advantage or not, you're sure as heckfire not locked out of the best DCs by going FtP.