Hey it's not a waste of time if you're having fun! :p.
You're right about the elitists, but then again I've never been a fan of WoW culture. Since I stopped playing Lineage II some years ago, I never heavily played another. I play Age of Conan now and again and even that is only because of the hubby, he likes to pvp and sometimes I get tempted to tag along. I can see why pay to play games are attractive for companies, one key one use. It'll be interesting to see what they come up with for a Transformers MMO.