right. as long as the cars are balanced, and the gp only stuff is cosmetic or things to speed up progress for those with less time to play I'm all for it. Some people want to enjoy the game but work 60-80 hrs a week and don't want to spend what little time they get to play grinding, they would rather use some poppers to gain xp and rp faster to catch up to their friends who work less and have more free time to play. So it isn't a pay to win mechanic at all. There are right and wrong ways to do micro transactions, just like there is a right and wrong way to do dlc. Yes a lot of companies have chosen the wrong way to do things. Doesn't make the mechanic itself bad just means that company screwed up. I don't think Jack and his team are going to go down the wrong path.
That said back on topic now, given the current issues with the game as seen in the streams that jack has done, and given he has said invictus still has at least a week more of work to do on the client side before handing it over to Jack. I think maybe last week in Sept. beta might happen, maybe 1st week in Oct.? then depending on bugs and so forth and how long those take to work out.. a week or 2 of beta before official launch. so I am thinking closer to mid-late October for the release date at this point if you look at it realistically. Maybe even longer if a lot of issues are found during the beta.