EA tells investors that removing these things from BF2 won't affect earnings.
http://www.pcgamer.com/ea-tells-investors-turning-off-battlefront-2s-microtransactions-will-not-affect-earnings/
This, to me, suggests that they aren't there to make games cheaper - a pathetic argument some people come up with for why we have them - but they're in games purely to make money.