Yeah, the group of friends I play with and I haven't purchased a membership either because of the server being down for hours upon hours, every single day. I don't see a point in membership and its bonuses if I can't use them when I want to. I swear half my friend list has already stopped playing because of how often these servers are down.
The game is better than Pokemmo for sure, but if you can't play it half the time. I can see why people go back there. I understand this is a "beta", but if you can't provide quality product upkeep, then you can't expect people to spend money to support it.