These are the same arguments that happened when DAZ bought Carrara. There was a lot of animosity between the Carrara and Bryce communities. Everyone was upset and assumed that the app they were using would be shortchanged. DAZ has managed to keep both products seperated, targetted at different user bases, and under development.
I don't why E-F couldn't do the same thing.
It could easily turn out that advanced features from a pro version could trickle down to the standard version and force it to develop even more quickly.

Friends don't let friends use booleans.