as a F2P player, life was not exactly easy versus Vet20s, i played in the era when F2P was in with 20-29 or 20-24 XPoff brackets from CATA thru BFA...it was not roses.
at start of SL blizz had all brackets merged, when a person at the time (vet20) on this forum, petitioned on WOW forums for the split of BGs, somehow 20 F2P and Vets were left in XP on. with the gearing available, all professions ungated, it was a blizzzard mistake, they had such a firestorm over SL to deal with, along with the allegations that they did not deal with us.
nothing in WOW lasts forever and now both 20's are back in XPoff, many assume it's the F2Ps doing all the crying, sure there are some, but imo alot of Vet20s have a larger monetary investment. rolling a separate paid account, shop and hopping servers servers requiring tokens for gold on other servers, paid server hops/returns. sure there are a few F2Ps that roll a separate paid account, even so they can't build or do what a Vet20 (when temp active) can due to like mail, trading, etc