I don't much hold those skins against PGI, either. Aside for the contempt for the fanbase implied in expressing thanks for such a massive donation with only a skin.
What I don't forgive them, however, is their repeated lies. For a year, players were told that faction warfare was well on it's way... until we learned that not a line of code had been done, PGI was waiting for it's battletech licence to be renewed.
Then there was a signifiant feature (don't remember which one), much delayed, that was declared as ready and done in december ("we're just waiting for the end of the holidays, guys!"), but was really deployed in april.
And so on.
They put the Madcat, the iconic MW mech, behind a 240$ paywall, until the community's outrage forced them to give a more reasonable 80$ way to buy it. if you can call "reasonable" paying a mech the price of two full games.
That also have more manpower involved in churning out mechs (that you had to pay for, of course, the grind with IG money being much worse than for most F2P), than for the rest of the game combined.
Bottom line, PGI are not in to create games. Their end goal isn't to create something you'll enjoy, and receive a fair amount of money for their effort. What they want to sell you is an environment that will pressure you into giving them as much money as they can get away with.
