It's based on how I feel and why about some other games (World of Tanks, War Thunder, Star Citizen, some new Diablos) -- I haven't really researched how P2W they are and I have possible other reasons not to buy into those games, but I recognize I'm not informed and could be wrong. If I wanted to research it I'd end up finding (and being algorithmically recommended) stuff that just focuses on the micro transactions and not what's actually fun about those games.
It's definitely not worth investing time into a game to later realize you can't really play because of P2W stuff (Heartstone for me).
I hear you and totally get, and to a degree share, the concern, but as I said before, the slippery slope argument is a fallacy in logic though that doesn't also mean that it can't happen, it's just that as a predictive measure it can't be relied upon and other factors need to be taken into account. Frontier if anything has historically given a lot of value away; the beyond season was meant to be paid IIRC but Frontier gave it away, the console scenario, putting aside the specifics that led to it, ended up with Frontier creating a portal to transfer a commander to PC which included a free Horizons base game license, and you got to keep your console commander. I'll not say Frontier is perfect, as that's an impossible standard to hold anyone/anything to, but I think they have taken hard decisions and made good as best as they can, given the situation, which has cost them money. Of course that doesn't preclude Frontier from turning Elite into a lootbox fomo monstrosity, but my own feeling, for what it is worth is that if it remains like this, I'm going to relax. I actually have an alt for which that AX ship might actually be a really good deal to get going, so if, as you say a lot of the reviews are 'didn't know what to do', 'too daunting' etc.. then maybe these ships could act as a bridge between experiencing something cool, but restricted, and seeing how the rest of the game works? That is also possible. I hope it is a success for Frontier, but I also hope that restraint is the order of the day when considering how and what to offer in these ways. But if this is how they earn to keep developing the game so we get Earth Likes etc.. then I'll accept it.