Those who have the money will continue to support the game as they always have. They will still have ADVANTAGE over Alpha in Skills(as it is 1 or 2 levels over them) when engaging in anything like combat, mining, trade, etc.
What this does, the proposition, is that it makes EVE online more competitive, more of a challenge to everyone, including to paying customers.
Well i can already abuse this to never have to pay anything as technically speaking the ships only check if you have the uppermost skill at level 1 meaning i could fly my black ops and my marauder and my stealth bombers meaning i have no reason to pay