I believe the references to removing pay-to-win are just that, references to the ongoing efforts to make everything payable by credits that used to be payable by gold only, and leaving only premium accounts and premium vehicles left as cash sinks (and possibly the permanent cosmetics, too).
They are rolling out with the unified premium account philosophy at the same time (this is live now, I think) as well, giving added value for the money and trying to keep people of both high income and high skill levels interested without giving "whales" an "I win" button.
I had the good fortune of being able to attend the Baltimore player gathering Tuesday, and The Chieftain had some very enlightening things to say. The North American player base is a pale fraction of the Russian (and rest of Europe) playerbase, but we have roughly over ten times the average disposable income to throw at the game, and we do, frequently.
Average PCU on the NA server is about 40K or something like that I think; on the Russian server it's 250K or 300K. NA and RU players also have vastly differing ideas about how the game should be balanced and how it should play, but overall they still try to keep everyone happy because they know if they alienate the NA players, they cut off the spigot and the RU players will suffer for it.
Overall, Wargaming is getting ready to pull off some cool stuff with the new games coming out and the e-sports ideas they've been touting lately. If they do well, WoT will be around for another 8-10 years and should continue to thrive and be as free as you want it to be the entire time. Warplanes is in beta now, and Warships should be getting there soon if it isn't already.
That said, we talked a hell of a lot about tanks in general too, had a lot of brew and chow, and one of the other players brought 10 model tanks for The Chieftain to give away as prizes in addition to the Wargaming swag they gave out. Cool stuff all around. All said, about 35 were present and had a decent time. A shame that WGNA didn't send more than one person, but I can understand why they only sent The Chieftain. He was already here doing research on tanks.
I'm kind of fired up for 0.8.6 too. The artillery changes don't seem to be too crippling, and the accuracy changes on the tanks are :thumbsup:. It's nice to hit the shit you aim for every now and then!