Personally I think people who make this argument have genuinely never played actual P2W games.
Do you gain an advantage from paying in Torn? Sure, to a point. Is Torn the type of game where you need to pay in order to win (i.e. an actual P2W game), no, certainly not. Besides, if you're aiming to be the best by paying then not only do you need to pay a small mortgage to do so (not something that is in any way common, its absurdly rare) you still need to be actively playing, put yourself in a good political position to gain allies and generally have a good knowledge and age within the game anyway... a day one player can't drop that kind of cash and then suddenly be the best, it would still take years of dedication.
We are of course grateful for anyone who donates or subs, and immensely grateful to those who are paying vast sums of money but it's not something you need to do in Torn.
I don't quite understand what people expect the alternative to be though, despite what people may think, Torn doesn't aim to be a predatory P2W game, nor do we need to push people towards paying. Torn costs a lot more to operate than people think, we run on quite slim margins all things considered, we have a vast number of developers and paid employees, and invest vast amounts into server costs and marketing too to ensure Torn continues to thrive and grow... would you rather we don't have that?
Torn is of course a business at the end of the day, a business is designed to make money, but we at Torn see our goal here as a company designed to make a game for people to play and enjoy - not to just bleed people dry.
Till Torn figures out a solution I guess.
A solution to what? Keeping the lights on? I don't understand what you're getting at here. What solution are you even suggesting?