To return to the original question, I've spent around $120 on this game (granted, it was all earned through virtual sources like FreeAppTrailers, which is now completely useless since they updated it, but it's still real money I could've used elsewhere) and had been hoarding donuts and saving money to buy more once the Easter updated came out. I immediately bought Crazy Cat Lady, which I feel was a good choice, and might consider getting the puppies, candy etc store if I ever get the 15 donuts from earning fences. But I don't know if I'll bother buying any more with this update. Whacking Day was painful due to the glitches, the fact that they extended it for a week after many of us bought things to speed up snake earning for fear we wouldn't make the deadline, etc...but at least you knew that if you did spend donuts (and hopefully even if you just worked for it), you would get all the prizes.
I spent 10 donuts for a basket at the start of Easter because I didn't know we'd earn more by zapping bunnies. That basket earned me enough eggs to open a box and win...a blanket. Really? $1 for a blanket?
If EA has decided to follow the path of other games like Avengers Alliance, where it's all a roulette wheel on what you win, I'm out. I played the AA game and enjoyed it until they made it so freaking difficult you had no choice but to spend real $$$ just to earn new characters. Even worse, you had to play for hours to complete a quest, and then the roulette wheel gave you some crappy cheap prize. I once spent gold to spin again, and won the exact same crappy cheap prize I'd just won. Never spent $$$ on it again. Sound familiar?
So if this is the way TSTO is headed, I'll keep playing as a freemium player, but I may just spend my $$$ on clams, even though I personally like the Simpsons better.