I don't know how much of the problem is "loss aversion", and how much is something else...
My thought is that the problem most people have was less the "loss aversion", and more a feeling of being punished for someone else's mistake - CiG handed out a "gift" to players, allowed everyone to be happy, then came out and said "we screwed up, so we're taking it out on you"... But only on those of you who were unable to log in before a certain time to spend the gift (or who opted to take some time to decide what they wanted to do, rather than "impulse buying") - Had the "punishment" been evenly applied (forced rollback to "wipe" inventory, with lower\planned starting balance for everyone), there would have been much less pushback, as everyone would have an "equal" start, rather than some having an "advantage" and using it, other having an "advantage" that was ripped away, while others heard about the "advantage" but missed out on it completely.
Coming into the patch, I wasn't expecting too many credits, which would have limited the activities I could do to the ships I had pledged for. Given this would quickly become repetetive (same things I did last wipe, and same I'll have to do next wipe in a few months), I was likely going to be less active this patch, as there would have only been a short period to build any in-game funds for the items I'd want for trying other gameplay areas. Having the windfall dropped on me allowed for the purchase of ships I would have been unlikely to have been able to earn in game between wipes, in order to give them a decent test (compared to the "48 hour loans" during IAE and Invictus... Something like the subscriber "ship of the month", but the player gets to choose the ships(s)) to see if they were suitable for what I wanted (and potentially worth pledging for), or if I should look for other ships for the planned purpose instead, as well as allowing me to try different activities than I would normally be able to try. This (if ships don't disappear) will likely have me playing a lot more this wipe than I had intended, testing a few areas I otherwise wouldn't - After all, how much data do CiG still need regarding players doing "entry level" missions, compared to the more advanced ones, at this stage?
One thing that I'd love to see fixed, though, is the ability for "missions" without fixed location\items to carry through between wipes ("call to arms", for example, or "qualification" missions when reputation was retained)... Although, having the ability to repeat some (like the 1-box delivery qualification mission) would be nice to close out a session - visit an outpost and speak to attendant in cargo building, get box from him, and deliver it somewhere (not known until box handed over by attendant) for a small amount of funds and a change of pace.
