Dimnos, yeah I can see why people like LoL due to the trees, summer spells, etc. Different strokes for different folks.
The difference with the HoN store is that all the items are vanity items. Skins, new voice overs, etc. Nothing that gives you the upper hand like new champs, runes, xp boosts, etc. Yes, HoN just released two new champions. Everyone got them. They do a bit more testing before they are officially released. You can play games that allow champions in development actually.
It's like if Street Fighter IV AE was completely Free To Play, but you only get to play 8 characters. Then the next week those characters change. You can buy the characters if you want for five bucks a piece, or you can play about 25 hours of gameplay and unlock
one with Capcom money. Meanwhile, I paid X amount of dollars to have 25 of the fighters, plus I've been playing long enough to where I have boosts (runes, spells) that allow me to have more moves and tougher armor thus giving me more of an advantage. It's free to play, but the game is stacked in my favor, heavily.
I love deny
When they took away Denyplank in LoL and reworked him into Shit Tier it really hurt me. Enough people QQed about his ONLY valid skill that they removed it. It also goes back to my other point that in LoL you are so reliant on laning to level. Then you gotta hurry back to the shop and get that item so you aren't totally useless.