Hmmm, well I think this is mostly propaganda.
The reason why they want to go with a Free To Play model is simply because it's an easier way to make more money. Typically the "ala carte" system means that a player who wants the full experience is probably going to wind up paying more than the standard $15 a month subscription fee. What's more it gives people with money a distinctive advantage encouraging people to pay money to succeed at the game, and also removing the need to police gold farmers and power leveling services and the like because the company itself is effectively going to be offering those services.
I also think it's a long term strategy that Bobby Kotick would be proud of (which is why it surprises me Blizzard hasn't done the same thing yet). Simply put if they get MMO gamers used to paying for things individually this means each addition to the game is going to make them money if people pay for it. One of the things that has kept WoW on top despite it's age is the free content offered by Blizzard, pretty much every month there is some kind of special event or holiday, with more added each year as the cycle moves around (or so it seems). This is content that is added for free to keep people playing and paying their subscription. New dungeons have also been added to the game, starting with things like "Dire Maul" back in the day. The so called "Free to Play" format means that all of these things will of course cost money to access. What's more some of these plans seem to be combined with what amounts to subscription fees, as it seems that part of the idea is to offer "premium memberships" to access content, or people to constantly pay for passes to access endgame content and dungeons, meaning that hardcore players are going to wind up paying every month anyway, in addition for added content as it's release, and any items and materials that they need to effectively keep up with the game competitively.
I think the subscription model is fine, it's just that since there is more money to be made through FTP, especially if it becomes established in the long run, that this is what the increasingly corperate game industry wants.
When it comes to not competing with World Of Warcraft, the problem is that game producers are not willing to spend what it takes to compete in an industry where the bar has been raised. Most MMO producers simply do not seem to "get" that they are not competing with World Of Warcraft when it first launched, but the juggernaut it's become with those free updates, expansion packs, and similar things. To compete with World Of Warcraft a game needs to launch with a similar amount of content to what WoW has now, combined with new technology, and preferably innovations that the game currently does not possess.
Back when "Age Of Conan" launched people thought it could compete with WoW, and had it actually implemented all of the things it was advertising to begin with, it probably would have. In reality when the game launched it was a mere shadow of what was promised, which is of course why it failed.
Please note that I am pointing fingers at the producers because they are the ones who decide how much money to put out, and how much time to give the Dev team. The reason why "Old Republic Online" might be able to compete with WoW is simply because it has the time and money invested in it that such competition is going to require. It might still fail, but it has a chance. I myself have been concerned about both a lack of depth, and a substantial imbalance between the good and evil factions which is something that has plagued every factional MMO from nearly the beginning.
