Guess I'm not surprised they back pedaled. We live in the Age of Outrage and companies are responsive to it. I'm still not sure whether or not I'll buy it at release, but at least if I do I know it's not sending the signal I approve of the "charity" DLC.
For Monolith....I'm willing to believe they actually tested it without microtransactions. I'd *like* to believe they're between a rock and a hard place, and if they are willing to publicly assert the MTX are purely additive (as in conceived of and implemented outside of the normal gameplay loop) then I'm willing to take that at face value. Setting aside the ethics of the question, nothing I've seen in SoW prior to the MTX announcements leads me to believe the game will "need" this extra loot and orc captains to be playable and fun.
While the outrage has been at times cringy, I'm glad the conversation was had around as big a game as this. I am glad that attention can still be called to it, and it wasn't collectively swept under the rug. It clearly had enough perceived impact to WB to make them change course. I'm not going to crow about it though. It's just unpleasant in general.
Still on the fence about buying. Even though I can live with loot boxes, my enthusiasm for the whole thing has been pretty tainted by all this. It was stars and rainbows before, and then the goddamn publisher had to start meddling. Just sit in the shadows and make your fucking money, FFS. Quit screwing with the developer and the community just for another fucking buck.