After reading much into many of this latest rage and whatnot, I simply have to put in my input. So to start things off...

The 8k+ CE prices:
In short this is actually I believe a in the error of us all. I will explain why. When we had our joyous 2 day free elevator passes, out of the kindness of the GM's hearts, and joy over their success of their product, We immediately dived into clockworks with much gusto, and in result we brought in much crowns, which in the end many of us bought CE at the given prices, in our frenzy of this plethora of new source of crown. Little did we know, everytime we bought out a crown level of CE, which drove the selling price higher and higher. Naturally, when the CE price hit 7.5k, the source of crowns stopped, and the F2P community, unable to provide the crowns, and the P2P community, still pumped by the fresh sales, naturally the price drove higher, even beyond the event. So in a way, It is all our fault, no one here is free of blame, and we took a destructive advantage of a free gift from our kind GMs.

In regards to the new content desire:

If I'm not correct, Spiral Knights is designed to be a bite sized gaming genre, in a MMO format. In other words, playing for hours endlessly was not part of its original design. Puzzle pirates was designed for small, short, bursts of fun, then the player could take a break. Spiral knights followed this idea in its core foundation, but expanded a little for a bit more intense gaming, with longer, but still short endurance. In other words, the 100 ME tank is out biggest clue here to this effect. Enough to play in bite size for the casual, and the CE option for the more hardcore.

However:
In regards to content, Spiral knights is quite superb in lessening the grinding experience a bit more pleasant, and unique. If one actually plays to enjoy the game, and not mindlessy grind for electronic artificial numbers, The arcade is a wondrous place, filled with a variety of levels, events, and whatnot, that our GM's put hard work, time, and money into. Its their infamous gate system, that adds randomness and variety to the game world of SK.

The latest patch:
To quell the recent minor explosion of complaints, I simply state this. We are all human. That is all. We are not perfect, even the best games are limited to the perfection of their creators. Thus patches and improvements are a common sight in this world. We make mistakes, and honestly the SK devleoper community is much more friendlier and hardworking to keep us happy compared to most faceless money grubbing community of MMO's. They are small time, yes, But it makes our community much better, friendlier, and more welcoming.

TL:DR I have pointed my views on the subject. Forgive for wall of text. CE prices is all our faults, New content is easier to wait for if you don't grind and make this game a big race, and the new patch is as perfect as the creators, and we are all human.