In my experience with LotRO, having a larger expansion along with frequent small content updates is a good thing. I also don't mind paying for expansions, as long as I can use my Cartel coins to pay for it instead of actual cash. That's how I bought the last LotRO expansion. Of course, the LotRO expansions are actually pretty big and relatively cheap (nowhere close to 50, usually around 25-30 dollars)