Bravery bonus and F2P/Premium

[BOgre]

They didn't change the rules though. They have always stated that VIP players will have access to things Premium and F2P players do not. The ability to open quests on Elite is one of them and has been for a while. This has been a feature of being a VIP player that Premium players did not get.

You gambled on Turbine never making VIP worthwhile and lost the bet. Others decided that sooner or later Turbine would add an incentive to VIP.

Not true. They never stated that VIPs would have access to things Premium and f2p did not. They stated exactly the opposite in fact. The few minor perks of subscription (login, guild charter, idle timer, and buyback) are not game mechanics, so not part of this discussion.
The ability to open quests on Elite is functioning as a VIP perk because the premium option is poorly priced, and isn't account wide. This is wrong, but since the benefit is so small, and the perceived thrown-bone for VIPs so great, the debate about that particular disparity has mostly died down. By adding Bravery ON TOP of Elite open, that gulf has widened, entering into the realm of core game mechanics. This is not minimal.

As for gambling, I find it repulsive that a company would make it's product pricing a gamble for it's customers (IF that's what it's doing, which I think it's not). Payment plans shouldn't be a gamble, they should be a matter of best fit for the individual.