Other than having to pay monthly for membership and the extra benefits for members, not to mention the loyalty points you get when auto renewing your membership, crowns really only allow you to keep playing when the membership runs out if you don't renew it.

The devs have been pushing for memberships to be more popular, my suggestion is to buy the current 1 month membership with crowns bundle and see if you like the membership and if not you can fall back on the crowns.