But they are...because the game has a free to play option... Heck, they were competing against them before the transition. Simply being a MMO means you have to compete with all other MMO's, be they F2P, freemium, or subscription based.
It's not a traditional F2P game, but it's freemium, which integrates the F2P model into the subscription based model. The developers have even called it the free to play option, meaning that it's there. Freemium is a hybrid model that most games transition to (AoC, CO, DCUO, STO, LOTRO ect.) once it becomes more financially viable than holding out as a subscription only game.