Points 1 and 2 deal a lot with gear but you should really worry about the much much more costly stable upgrades.
You don't really need stable upgrades to remain competitive if everything else is fine with your fighters, most of them just add extra convenience. The Undertaker is great but if you keep your fighter in the grave for 24 hours, the effect is the same - so you just wait. The Doctor can save you some money but personally I wouldn't save several months for something that does not guarantee certain results when I can use the same resources to equip my gladiators with much greater efficiency. The Scribe nobody seems to bother with, the Armoury is also useful but with Merchants' Guild membership can be bypassed and the Vault offers greater tactical flexibility (especially for a Master of Arms War, I have one of them) but you can win even without extra weapons. So all these things help, but they are not mandatory and my guys have been doing fine without them for quite some time.
Purple Gear is great for a war/theatrics but for rage you really only need the weapon to be purple.
I agree here but that's two classes out of three, surely you don't expect all non-paying players to run all-Rage stables only. Wars in particular just can't handle the Primus opposition if their equipment is inferior, I've observer the performance of my own Wars there before and after equipping them with purple and the difference is huge. It's not much different for the Theatrics actually, especially against Wars. Besides, being able to win easily against a certain class with inferior gear shows a balance flaw, i.e. if a green-clad Theatrics can beat a purple-clad Rage, then a purple-clad Theatrics will crush him in almost every battle which is not exactly fun. Some balancing pass is on the way and I guess some of these things will be addressed.
Point 3 is true to an extent but exaggerated. Yes my top dudes will probably always be competitive but i don't have any ambitions to become the next solstice.
Me neither, but if I was a new player, I certainly wouldn't like the idea of getting to the end only to realize that I don't stand a chance against anyone there. Think of it as a regular game with a boss battle in the end - you reach the boss after many hours of playing and improving yourself only to get your ass handed to you so many times that at one point you figure out that there are less frustrating ways to spend your free time. Not because you are a poor player but because you can't afford the things necessary to fight the boss.
Point 4 is kinda odd I dont know if you were here for when Wargh literally tore through the primus wearing greens and a single purple Gladius he was nearly unstoppable for awhile.
Yup, but that ultimately got fixed. There are still dual-wielding Rages beating the slower fighters without getting a single retaliation but not as many as before and if the game is further balanced, they should disappear completely. In general, I don't think a balance flaw should be used as an argument here as the balance is a subject to change and if the change is for the better, all such exploits should become unavailable.
The last paragraph is kinda interesting you have to remember for the most part buying trophies is a simple trade off of time versus want. as for free players not having a chance I just dont think thats true at all. I dont think they can run a 5 grape ape stable but they can still compete with the best of them. A Green superspeed Snivler rage for example would tear sedris apart before he could hit them. A Green Duel hammer power rage can beat Tourach. Prey can lose to a Green Sword and shield Theatrics. matchups and builds and stratagys have alot more importance to a free player but them not being able to compete without spending an exorbent amount of money isnt true
Well, I just can't agree here. I'm in Primus myself and I can certainly see first hand what's the difference between purple-clad and green-clad gladiators. Apart from the Rages - who indeed need only purple weapon to remain competitive, even though purple armour will boost their stats nicely - the other two classes are very dependant on their equipment. I remember fighting Landis (one of Cynaidh's fighters I think) when she climbed the ladder to Primus while she was armed with green gear only and I would beat her very often. Then one day she switched to full purple and suddenly I couldn't get her health below 50% with none of my under-equipped fighters. Strategy is important but I just don't buy that it can compensate for bad equipment, at least in some 90% of the cases.
Donation's? I think its on the bank page :P. Please bear in mind the developers are not 2 dudes in someones basement but an actual game company and PitOfWar or atleast the idea of it has been around for atleast 10 years.

This type of game is a very very niche game (Basically you need to be a very Hardcore gamer who not only likes text based old school games but enjoys the premise of gladiator combat) That being said i think a lot of what we are seeing is the beginning of making the pits appeal to a much much larger audience.
In any case, it wouldn't hurt trying to earn money via different means than making the end game cash-spending dependant.That's their decision of course but if it ultimately turns out that you can't compete in Primus if you don't pay, I myself will stop playing. On the other hand a honest request for funding will probably extract some money from my account.