Whining that this is greedy is like whining that they don't make expansion packs free.
Nobody's whining. Everyone knows that companies are in this for the money. But when a company goes above and beyond to milk more money out of folks, we call it greed. We think of it as a negative on the company's balance sheet of goodwill.
When a company does somthing cool like give away features, we say nice things about them to show our appreciation. In fact, we think good thoughts about that company and respect it for giving more value to its players. Do you agree that we do that, and rightly so? I'll assume you do.
Well, you seem to think that when a company does the opposite, i.e. charges money just because they can, we shouldn't call them out for it. You seem to think we should praise game companies for giving superior value, but hold our tongues when they milk extra money out of players. Can you explain why?
Speaking of expansion packs for free, WoW has introduced TONS of new content absolutely for free. That's one of the reasons Blizzard is so well-respected and even beloved: free stuff. If they were to switch to an EQ2 model (5 expansions TO BUY in the same timeframe as WoW's 2), then ActiBlizz would get less respect for giving gamers free stuff. We wouldn't blow up their headquarters or anything, but we'd be justified in saying that ActiBlizz is no longer the player-friendly and righteous company that Blizzard was.
Blizzard has a beloved space in many gamers' hearts, and much of that is for doing things like running battle.net for free all this time. If they stop that sort of sweetness, you think we shouldn't call them on it? Sorry, we will.