Different game, with different mechanics and background concerns, etc., but I recall when getting into the free-to-play Ace Combat Infinity and the ultra-expensive planes were introduced. The time needed to dump into upgrading a Darth Vader equivalent plane would make 40-hours look like absolutely nothing. Absent a ton of microtransactions (all centered on just playing it more), you needed something like 12,700 missions, with a minimum of 3 minutes per mission, to accumulate the credits. That's all just to say, such lopsided mechanics are nothing remotely new.
As for EA's response here, the backlash was over-the-top. It is a cogent, reasonable, explanation of the reasoning behind the way the system is. Honestly, for most folks that into the game, 40-hours is 2-3 weeks of gameplay, maybe a month. It's not the great huge burden like it's being made out to be. If you bought the $80 version instead of the $60, that's your own poor decision-making process. It's not as though there was something promised to be in there and then not. Don't like micro-transactions? Don't spend on them. It really isn't that hard to avoid these things if you just stop making excuses for why avoiding it is hard.