Suggestions

This is based on speculation but I have a hunch it might be accurate.

If indeed the reason for rushed Ancient releases and crunch is to get eyeballs on the site, then I suggest a subscription. Clearly whatever they're making off ad revenue and gem sales isn't enough, or is only barely enough, otherwise Ancients wouldn't be so rushed. A sub is the only other way to get money to a project like this.

I don't know what the benefits to the sub would be, though it should really just be cosmetics. We don't want a pay-to-win situation (or, as close as you can get in this kind of game). A forum vista, an apparel set, a familiar. Or a monthly, reasonable amount of currency. idk. I'm not one of those economy people. I don't know what would be best.

If a subscription is a necessary evil to take the pressure off the devs so they can feel more comfortable putting out quality, completed updates, then I will tolerate it. I'm fine with the whales getting fancy apparel or whatever if it means we can get the QoL and lore and Everything Else updates we've been begging for for literal years.

I admire the dedication to avoid this kind of thing. I really do. FR is really good about keeping microtransactions to a minimum. But it appears we may have hit a critical point where they might not have an option.

EDIT: Gonna list possible subscription benefits just for brainstorming. If they went with a tiered approach these could be spread out over the tiers.
-No ads
-Monthly currency bonus (perhaps the gem equivalent to whatever the subscriber is paying per month?)
-Like one extra row of lair space
-Unique apparel/scenes/forum vista(s)/familiars
-Monthly food bonus?

honestly...i would be okay with this. if you would have asked me two years ago, i'd have said hell no, but for the reasons you listed...yeah. if it was like 5 bucks a month i would probably do it. the subscription could also include being ad-free. because frankly, i would be happy to turn off adblocker on this site to support the devs if the ads were not so disruptive. i can't deal with them.

As long as the subscription-based item isn't account-bound, I'm all for it! I would hate to get stuck with an ugly familiar/piece of apparel/etc. that I can't get rid of just because I bought a premium subscription, and it wouldn't be fair to completely block new cosmetic items from players who are either too young to subscribe or can't afford it. Making it tradable would basically be like a gem MP item that users could sell or swap amongst themselves.

Overall, I would gladly pay for an ad-free sub to help support my favorite game. I buy gems once a month or so when I can swing it, so I don't feel as bad about keeping adblock on, but the ads are so obnoxious that I just can't deal with them. :( Especially on mobile, where it's way too easy to accidentally click an ad while trying to scroll.

Support for no-ad and monthly bonus of gems. Tentative on the unique items, may be okay if they aren’t clanbound. No-ad has been requested to cover all devices easily even public ones. Monthly gems aren’t bad either since gems are bought anyways. There are already stuff like the sticker vista, so I’m not too opposed to unique items. Just don’t want clanbound.

No support for an extra row of lair space and monthly food bonus (I think…?). They may be too close to a small advantage. Plus what happens to the extra space if the subscription stops?

I'd only support a subscription to remove ads - possibly that includes an appropriate number of gems somewhat equal to what you'd get if you spent that amount on buying gems instead. Maybe a tiny bit less.

I absolutely do not support subs getting extra lair space or unique items, absolutely not. Over my dead body. I hate subscriptions on games, and locking users out of bonus content like that is why. FR has always been very fair on making it easy to obtain anything on site without spending money, and that would do away with that whole philosophy which has made this site so great - it'd be the one thing that'd make me debate leaving.

I'm cool with a vista, no ads, and a small amount of gems (slightly less than the cost of the sub would buy sounds fair). Anything else is a huge deal breaker.
I know staff needs money, I want staff to make money, but introducing sub only content is a death rattle for any game imo. It always spirals. Always. And I love this game, I don't want to witness that.

Absolutely no support for subscriptions

They always, without fail, take priority over non-subbing accounts

The releases just need to have proper time taken with them. No more crunch, no hard deadlines, just ensure it is good, quality work being released.

I know the general consensus on subscriptions is very divided, but solely from my personal perspective, I would love a subscription that provided a daily food supply and a supply of gems over the course of a month. So long as it is NOT an auto-renewing subscription. I find feeding my dragons to be tedious and would gladly pay a subscription to make that aspect of the site less of a struggle (even if it only provided about as much food from a typical gathering session) and getting a steady supply of gems for daily logins would also be nice, as this is how most subscriptions function in the other games I play.

But a subscription purely for ad removal would get zero interest from myself, unfortunately.

Flight rising already has a paid currency system and you could, theoretically, buy basically anything on site with enough real world money gem purchases. I have never personally understood why a subscription would be any different.