All of that comes from Korea, not from NC west. Korea is far more p2w, always have been, and always will be, and it is how Koreans like their games.
It is really not about difference in business mentality. Now in Korea, is easy to take money from the players for maintenance and development because there is actuall an active playerbase, but here is not the case. Not only the game has no players, but also everyone wants a 100% free game where you can have everything by simply playing the game a few hours a day. Obviously this is not possible. Right now a good chunk of the playerbase is from south america, and you know, currencies on south america are not exactly strong, so they cant really support the game. The only way to do so is with whales, a few dudes who spend a lot of money in the game.
Dont get me wrong. While I do spend a little money on the game, if every player that there is right now spend as little as i do, the game would be closed already.