I've played on official off and on over the last 8 years. There are so many cheated in dinos and items floating around. It would completely unbalance the game if mega tribes were allowed to transfer all their stuff over. While i can understand solo people wanting to keep their stuff, you have to keep in mind that the game play also caters to mega tribes. Their ability to transfer stuff would completely flood the new servers. Giving them an unfair advantage. If its gotta wipe, it needs to be a clean wipe so its fair to everyone.
As for having to pay for Ascended, so many games die because they never upgrade the game to keep up with newer releases. Those upgrades require people and people don't work for free.