I don't see why this is a big deal. If you don't want to use their auction house, you can still play.
No matter what happens, operating with a game can be called "playing a game"
Of course, you can still play because it is what it is called.
Now, lets figure that a game has a level cap of 50. The first 45 levels are extremelly boring, while the 5 final levels are entertaining. Playing all way through.
With an auction house, some players might loop grind all day long from 1 to 45 while players pay to play the last fifth levels.
The direction taken has an impact on gaming, the expectation on and the quality of it. Nobody ever stated that making money has to be fun, entertaining, pleasurable. It can be but not has to be.
If one has the idea that you have to deserve what you get, well, it changes deeply the direction of gaming, with an opportunity of forgetting on working on the gameplay as long as it can bring money, if the gameplay is weak, repetitive, tedious, boring but leads to making money, well, the goal is achieved.
Still a stretch from telling this direction has no impact on the game. A direction that might lead to no longer be the main measurement in a game but how money can be made out of it.
They have to think the whole loot system in regards with the money making system, which is not forcefully the same as looking at it with a specific gameplay in mind.
