Maybe it is just me, but I cannot follow what you are trying to say.
as I understand you state, that for one year subscription WO 3.5 WU Units have to be sold. that I understand (based on the given numbers).
Then you say WU is solid business because you sell and dont have to care to keep the ppl invested.
As I understand exactly that is what CC is doing, is it not? because if they would provide new stuff the 'doesn't cost CC anything' would not be valid. Correct me if I am wrong.
As I see it, exactly thats what happening in the market as well. A lot of Publishers/developers pushing out one Product and move on to the next. Thats what they do.
Just because CC has to keep players invested for the abo in WO, they still work on WO. No Abo, no WO - WU would probably "long abandoned with almost noone caring" because it is the usual.
Now they care just because of the continous development happening in WO.
for me it looks almost like complaining about a Feature not present in the Original but in the next episode of the series. Ok, that is a bit over the top, I admit, but it has a slight touch of that.
(I dont want to put exact examples as it not the right place for that)
Maybe it was promised (like features in lots of other games too), ok, but thats just how the business works. To be honest, I dont think it is right but it is happening in a lot of games and most ppl. keep buying.