Ye, though i felt that the commenters addressed the differences quite well, without doing much more than acknowledging your acknowledgement, they observed that in one case the game needs it to survive and in the other it does not, though speculating the franchise's survival might.
I've also been avoiding over expensive(£24+), and most over £15, games this year, though I intend to purchase heart of the swarm when i finish the first one, and when starbound comes out i'd pay £30 for that.
I'd like to claim i avoid lots of pre orders, but I do do it sometimes, though due to college i skipped crysis 3 and heart of the swarm, i cant claim the same with FC3 alas - I dont own a single UPLAY game, and maybe i wont have to now with the origin deal.