Station Cash: Should I Thank or Curse It?

I saw a post on EQ2Wire this weekend that opened up an old wound.  Smokejumper, the Senior Producer for Everquest 2, let loose the secret that the main EQ2 team had been (and still are) making all the Station Cash Marketplace items and not a dedicated team as SOE had previously maintained when the Station Cash items were first introduced.

Hmm ... let me think.  Did the diversion of resources perhaps impact how fast the Sentinel's Fate expansion was produced?  I think so.  So part of the reason for the delay from November 2009 to February 2010 for the release was that the dev team just wasn't as big as was busy making appearance items and other items for sale.

Now, I was never one of those players who opposed the introduction of the marketplace and SOE selling items that way.  After all, if that kept EQ2 running, I was happy.  I would never quit the game because of Station Cash.

At least, I never thought I would.  But with this news (and yes, I believed SOE about a dedicated SC team), I may have to ammend that statement.  Why?  Let's look at last year's timeline.

June 2009 - Brenlo announces at SOE Fan Faire that Sentinel's Fate would launch in February 2010 instead of November 2009. 

8 August 2009 - I download Eve Online and make a trial account.  Rosewalker becomes a capsuleer.

11 August 2009 - Eve is so good I subscribe.

10 September 2009 - Eve is so good I get a second account.  Wandering Rose is born.

19 September 2009 - Finish getting all my crafting alts to level 80.  Now have a max level crafter for each crafting profession.

10 October 2009 - In EQ2, my level 80 ranger gets her 200th AA point and is basically finished development.

17 October 2009 - Rosewalker joins Eve University.

2 November 2010 - I cancel my Station Access account.

Looking back, once I reached all of my objectives in EQ2, I then went full-bore into Eve.  Would I have done so if I new a new adventure was awaiting me in a few weeks?  Probably not, because I would have been studying for the new expansion and making preparations in-game.  Also, when you have 3+ years invested in a character, letting go is hard.  I still occasionally think about logging back into EQ2, but I just don't want to spend the money on the new expansion when I know I have to do things in New Eden.

So should I be happy that SOE's Station Cash scheme helped push me out the door into the wonderful world of New Eden, or should I curse Station Cash for leading me to abandon characters I had spent so much time developing?