Hi there. I'm a brand new customer, 24 hours old. I had my eyes on for a bit and vaguely remember looking about a year ago. The lack of a free trial option was a consideration. It isn't that the ~$5 is that much, but since the pricing is somewhat obscured on the website, it was my thought process of "if I like this game am I okay with yet another $10/mo bill?" (That's before I knew you could win and play, essentially, for free with credits.)
I'm fine with earning my stripes to D1, but had D3 been free I'm sure I would have jumped in a year ago. And once this season ends -- and I've paid my ~$5 to get my *** kicked because I'm learning -- what's the likelihood I'll pay for a second season at an increased rate? I can't say yet, obviously.
Honestly, D3 being F2P isn't a bad idea. Some sort of microtransactions for QoL add-ons could be the D3 revenue stream. Pay to change your team's colors, add mascots, perhaps some better recruiting options (now we're flirting with P2W, though).
What I'm seeing now is that the leagues seem pretty sparsely populated by humans. That's a problem and doesn't incentivize me to reup for season 2+.