I think the situation here is a little different though. The game is basically ready for release, it had multiple closed betas in multiple regions already, there's simply no reason for them to do another payed, closed beta, except for wanting to rake in money. Founder's packs are always a way to make money of course, but usually you buy them to get access to the closed alpha/beta. In TOS's case the closed beta is done, but they announced another one for no reason, after announcing an open beta first. At least that's how I see it.
Another point might be the value of what you get. In many founder's packs you find exclusive things that you can't really get any other viable way. You want in now, and you want the special features/items/titles/pets/whatever, so you pay up. Maybe $50, maybe $100, maybe even more, but in TOS you get nothing special. It's 2 headgears (dunno if those are even exclusive?) and the value of your buy-in in their cash currency. Like they said themselves, it's a headstart, nothing else. You're paying in advance what you might spend on the game later on. Even that is done better by other companies though, as they usually don't only have 1 pack, but multiple ones. Like Albion, which does not only have the $100 one, but also one for $30.
It definitely is, for better or worse. I don't mind buying into a closed beta, but not into an "open" one, if you know what I mean =|
Keep in mind though, while Melia is a little more advanced than R1, it's not complete yet either. You will be able to set up a server, login, and do things upon release of the code, but not much more than what I have demonstrated in my videos so far. It will be on all of us to change that =)