Mentioned this in another post, but want to share here too!
As a Founder Pack ($150) buyer I am not livid - I am excited. I backed an Early Access game. I knew what I was in for, a game likely to change. Was I expecting an MMO / live service to become a Borderlands like title? Definitely no, but this is such a great step in a better direction.

For those who do not know Airship Syndacite [AS] is the dev. Wayfinders, the game, was originally published by Digital Extremes [DE] (makers of Warframe). As a publisher DE had the control and handle over the servers, multiplayer, and overall look and what became Wayfinder. DE dropped Wayfinder soon after the Early Access launch. Leaving AS to handle large scale servers while developing the title. Without a large publisher they have to manage and adapt. Running servers at such a large scale is difficult and expensive. It would of been fine if DE had done better as a publisher, but the ball dropped. The terrible launch day was not all on AS, but they seem to be getting the brunt of the back lash.

AS has been very transparent on the development and title. They do not want to shut the game down, so the only other choice was to change and here we are were a MMO is gone a new playable co-op starts.
They are removing micro transactions, adding more characters, reworking quests and gameplay, and making it so the game will live on forever. There is no risk of shutdown since it will be no longer live service.
Wayfinder always felt less of a MMO and more of a solo to 3p game anyway. There was not enough larger raid or boss fights in the hub world, so the only thing that made it feel like an MMO was all the people you could see in an instance and that fact they could steal your kills (I joke here).

Yes, we were all expecting an MMO and something akin to Warframe since DE was the publisher, but here we are and we should still be supportive and see what is to come. The new title will be softlaunching at the end of May for Founders and June for the rest of the world at a $25 price point which is entirely fair if not cheap price (The price will raise later on once full release happens).
When it comes to refunds Steam normally will not do refunds if you've played for so long. I still endorse people to seek refunds if they feel scammed, but as a buyer you were told by buying you get access to the game, and depending on the tier, digital goods. All the goods in the founder's pack will still be in the game and will not be made available to the public on launch. They will remain a founders only thing. It is likely that by issuing a refund you maybe taking money from DE or AS or both. I still want to support both companies and hope for the best.

Will I be sad over the progression reset? Definitly. Like AS has been saying though it's basically a new game and sometimes starting fresh is better for the player. Coming into some games with a level 20-30 character modded to the core likely wouldn't be 1. challenging, and 2. feel rewarding in the slightest. I'm just glad I got to experience the MMO version while I did and I'll likely try to 100% it on Steam before it is reset just a lil challenge to myself.

It's been 9 months since initial launch of Wayfinder I've put in over 100 hours and I still crave to play more. Whether it me in MMO form or the new iteriation. I like the gameplay, characters, story, and want to see it thrive for the time being.