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No, that's not comparible. Amusement park rides are not competitive activities. A mud with strong gameplay aspects (particularly those of a PvP nature) are competitive activities. Some people might not care about those competitive aspects, but the same is also true of running a race or earning martial arts grades - some people just do them for fun, but for many others it's a competitive activity, and allowing people to buy their progress will reduce the value of skill.
If he raced against people who had no budget, yes, that would be unfair. If he entered races where all the other contestants were hobby motorcycle racers, do you think the other contestants would consider his races fairly won through skill? Or do you think they'd feel that his tens-of-millions-budget had bought him an advantage they couldn't compete against?
You can stop them obtaining most things though, and there are many ways to restrict players from taking advantage of overpowered items that they've received from friends - plus, such equipment is always going to be something that is available to other players as well, while I was specifically referring to muds where "money is the only realistic way to earn certain competitive edges" (in other words, equipment which only money can buy). However a mud which cannot stop people from becoming overly powerful through shared equipment has a serious design flaw - and even if they want to sell super-equipment, a flaw like this is going to make a hole in their profits, as players can simply get nearly as good gear from their powerful friends.
But internal character advancement (as opposed to things like equipment) is another thing entirely. I don't know of any muds which allow players to give their friends levels, exp or skill-boosts - yet many pay-for-perks muds allow precisely these sort of things. It is one thing to argue that players with insufficient time should be able to compensate for it with money, but when players can purchase advancement outright like this you're also allowing money to replace playing skill.
I've no plans to run any sort of payment model in God Wars II, but I am working on a number of completely player-skill-based advancement options. Much like the typical pay-for-perks approach, except that money is replaced with skill, this 'play-for-perks' model allows skilled players to progress faster than grinders, and also unlocks options for skilled players which no amount of pure grinding can achieve. If someone has something you can't get, you can't blame it on them having more time or money than you, only on being a better player.
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