First off, let me say I am grateful for the devs appear listening and considering opinions.
Now, I started as a PLer myself, not giving much heck on Setting or any roleplay. For say 2 months I had to watch roleplayers setting up fancy, cunning and exciting stories - I became intruiged, and I wanted to get myself into it, set up plans and plots, get people involved and all that!
And I do know quite some people who got infected the same way.
If those 2 servers were really strictly separated from each other, I tend to think I wouldnt become a roleplayer anymore. That much about the downside I see in this action.
As far as I know PlaneShift was once said to be a "real" mmoRPg. To me it looks like the devs back down and create a PL server, since keeping it all strictly roleplay'ish would be too much hassle. I cant but have to bewail this decision to split the game and the community.