It will certainly make it harder with the signups; just 2 days ago I wrote in another part of the forums, since I didn't know about this requirement yet, that signups are no problem usually, just keeping the drivers in during the season is.
You have a very limited user-base in rf2 to begin with, mostly because of the not optimal release back then, the more needed effort to understand all the parts of the sim for newbies and the overall graphics bashing.
If you add to that another layer of effort (getting a premium membership) it will naturaly lead to less racers.
I'm not even critizicing this as I'm fine with this. There are also advantages to these kind of soft-hurdles, as you will end up getting a much higher percentage of dedicated "serious" racers racing with you.
Since the rf2 world is really small you'll meet many guys in many different places again anyway, so you'll know who the dedicated rf2 fans are after a while
You have a very limited user-base in rf2 to begin with, mostly because of the not optimal release back then, the more needed effort to understand all the parts of the sim for newbies and the overall graphics bashing.
If you add to that another layer of effort (getting a premium membership) it will naturaly lead to less racers.
I'm not even critizicing this as I'm fine with this. There are also advantages to these kind of soft-hurdles, as you will end up getting a much higher percentage of dedicated "serious" racers racing with you.
Since the rf2 world is really small you'll meet many guys in many different places again anyway, so you'll know who the dedicated rf2 fans are after a while