Freeloaders? Aren't we all freeloaders by your analogy? After all, none of us are paying for this game. However, us "freeloaders" are people who have stuck with this game for a long time, and will become long-term paying customers if SE can deliver on their promises.
If when they turn the game around and all the current freeloaders start paying (lol) the game will fail and close if that is it's playerbase, the game does not have enough players to sustain itself. Especially how much it cost to develop, it needs a huge boost in numbers to even break even.

The game will only be a success if they can bring lots of new players in, if they can't do that the ones that have stuck with the game while you didn't pay a dime will make no difference at all, also really? sticking by a product that's free is in no way a sign of support at all.. they are doing you a favor not the other way around. It will still crash and burn, so yeah we/you are all freeloaders and don't really matter very much in the grand scheme of things.

The current playerbase are beta testers for a bigger audience they hope to bring into the game.