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You're failing to grasp the point. It's not just "someone" who has to pay - it's the target audience of the advert (the players) who are paying, yet they're also the ones who are being told that the game is "completely free".
I have to pay a hosting fee for my mud, yet I still advertise it as "free" because there are no costs for the players - and they are the audience for my advert. The company I pay for my hosting doesn't advertise itself as free, because I am their customer, and there are costs for me to pay.
You can play the game 'for free' if you don't mind being at a severe disadvantage. You can also play many pay-to-play muds the same way (eg by creating a new account each month, or by missing out on various gameplay options).
But it order to play competitively, you need credits, which can only be consistently and repeatably gained through the expenditure of cash. Yes, you can trade with other people who have bought credits so that you don't have to pay personally - but the same is true of any pay-to-play mud, whereby you could get someone else to pay your fee in exchange for services rendered.
Obviously TMS isn't going to add a "pay-for-perks" option to the mud database, but your argument would be a good basis for most of the pay-to-play muds to claim that they are also "free". So perhaps the whole "pay-to-play" option should be removed, so that players are encouraged to look the information up for themselves rather than rely on misleading advertising.
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