There would be a massive amount of abuse. There are farming people who literally have 9000 accounts with 20 HP in them each. There are hundreds of thousands of alts out there. Minnows have a fair bit of weight, most don't use it or find ways to concentrate it. There is still the possibility to grow through posting and engaging, most won't put the effort in. Of course, it is probably more worth their time for many to buy-in rather than earn from content. At some point, there has to be a hurdle of some kind to earn, whether it be buying or effort to engage.
There has to be the incentive to build and there are quite a few who over the last few years have done just that. What I find is, give something for free, people devalue it further - but when someone works for it, they overvalue it as they have invested themselves.