I hope that CoH2 does not turn free to play. The player base won't grow. There were already two free giveaways, so everybody that is at least partially interested probably has the game, and basically none of them stayed for long. A FTP won't bring in new players, just more cheaters.
I dont know about that. I have seen allot of Chinese players recently and probably due to those free giveaways. I remember around 2016 when average people on weekends was barely 4K and now we see somewhat 11k. I dont have the exact numbers but this is all from what I have seen playing the game over the years.