I would be 100% okay with these options, in fact I fully support and look forward to them. SE needs a way to make a little extra money off this game, even after they start charging considering how many pay periods have gone by without a single cent to show for it. Also with the impending addition of missing race/gender options (hopefully) by PS3 launch it would be incredibly unfair of them not to allow the loyal players who kept the game alive up until then to change such things.

As far as transfers and merges, I believe they should wait until after PS3 launch to even start considering it. Merge servers first, then allow all players 1 free move and after that charge for transfers.

These are the kinds of things that micro-transactions should be used for. As long as they don't start adding crap I've seen in other games like SP/XP gain items and the like it will be fine.