What do you do when an entire community freaks out about having to pay for new commanders? You implement a brand new system that grants you free commanders without having to pay. Then you make the system suck so hard that people start getting frustrated. Voila, you now have your free pass to sell commanders again. Because you listened to the community, people will thank you. Win/Win.
War spoils is simply stupid. Releasing war spoils and then quickly releasing commanders that you have to pay for is pathetic.
I'm in the camp that Relic should make all commanders free, unlocked and only aesthetic items are purchasable. Most successful FTP business models are like this.