True Story.

@GreenSpade
If you check the official SWTOR page click subscribe, there is a side-by-side comparison of what you get F2P vs Preferred vs Subscription. At first I just went preferred, but with the amount of time I plan on spending playing, the 2 character limit wasn't gonna cut it, went for the 3 month to see how it goes. I had my first 450 cartel coins (from paying $4.99 going preferred) then as soon as I signed up they gave me 550 more, I think they do every month? I think it's worth it for your first play-though to be subscribed, as I found out even with preferred, you miss out on certain quest rewards (cosmetics/extra credits/ect...) which they fail to mention in the comparison.

A lot of the limitations for the Free to play members such as sprint and speeder training at lvl 25 were all part of the initial release so neither of those should be of any issue.
As for the slow exp rate (25% less) it does kind of suck .. but you'll just have to grind a little bit to catch up with the content levels.
You are also only given 2 quickbars, which if you're just playing for the story mode and content it is more than enough .. you don't need maximal function to get through the story content.
Item restrictions are only those of purple coloured gear (artifact) which really isn't that much better than blue (prototype) gear when you're leveling. Most players (even subscribers) tend to pick up orange (custom) coloured armor and stick blue mods in them to progress through the planets and levels. It is more than enough to get you through the content.

These are pretty much the only important ones (in my opinion). There are definitely more but it shouldn't bother you from enjoying this game!

Yeah, I agree.