I think part of the reason for the hostile reaction to the thread (despite the huge invasion of corporate and personal privacy that the suggestion entails) is the topic.

Compensation for the early sub fee.

The sub fee is not early. It's just that the game is not free anymore. They're no longer giving away the game for free, but rather than shutting down the servers, they're offering us a chance to pay to keep playing.

If they had instead announced a plan shut down the servers entirely and told us to come back for 2.0, I know some of us would be on the forums asking for a chance to pay to keep them up. That's who the target audience of 1.20 is. For that audience, the subscriptions are not early. They are not premature. Calling them such is part of the argument for those who want to keep playing for free. Whether you're paying or or not, your post is going to attract flak for using that rhetoric.