I know that World of Tanks has an older player base than most games, and those players are more willing to pay for fun than people who play other games, but honestly, most games' player bases would have abandoned ship long ago for actions much less greedy than Wargaming's.
-Premium ammo, that instantly makes you better, and is much too expensive for the average player to afford large amounts of, but no problem for the whales
-Premium tanks, which are outright stronger than normal tanks, which you have to pay to get
-A grind that is nigh impossible without a premium account, facilitated by:
-losing credits even on a win at higher tiers. Again making it harder and harder for the average player, while the whales are perfectly fine
"It'S fReE tO pLAy ThoUgh." Yes, obviously I know this game is free to play, but it is certainly pay-to-win as well. Many other games can manage to be free to play, non-pay-to-win, and make plenty of money too. Riot Games is a perfect example of a company to compare Wargaming to. The only benefit money grants you is in the form of cosmetics, and I don't think Riot is strapped for cash.
How to fix WoT?
-Make "premium ammo" do less damage with higher pen, for the same cost, changing pen values for ap and premium
-Balance premium tanks
-Increase experience per battle, or decrease the cost to research
-Remove tank repair costs, and reduce higher tier ammunition cost
What irks me the most about the whole situation is how willing much of the player base is to defend Wargaming's business model. I've never seen a community so readily defend a company for ripping them off.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/WorldofTanks/comments/i0td8o/metathe_biggest_problem_in_world_of_tanks_is/