You know what the best response to all the Revan issues would be... the one thing that could bring balance to the game and then, while there will always be those whom complain, should mitigate about 90 % of the complaints that this all really stems from?
Here's a novel and logical, so ultimately rejected idea by CG/EA:
Why not reshuffle all f2p into ONLY f2p squad arena and fleet arena shards, that way everyone can actually be in a shard that is competitive for the type of financial commitment you have in the game.
This would allow f2p to compete against like players and p2p now actually have to deal with other p2p.
DOING THAT... would mostly stop people complaining. That would certainly eliminate a lot of the 'unfairness' aspect about how characters are released, because lets face it, CG/EA is NOT going to change their business practices. No amount of complaining will make them change their ways.
And just so we are all on the same page here, the reasons CG/EA will give for never doing something like this will be, although never will it be publicly stated, is doing that while keeping the game more competitive and fair would also cause them to lose a sizable portion of the player base whose impatience makes them spend money to get ahead.
Make no mistake, whether you agree with it or not, CG/EA wants MONEY period. All other considerations are secondary.
Once you understand and accept it as part of the game, u can sort of enjoy the rest of what the game offers.