I seriously doubt that considering the new COD will be right around the corner (and why hurt the next COD's sales by releasing this) and they're still sticking to their guns on this one. They really have nothing to lose by refusing to release it separately, most gamers that have given up on the series have already left it so it's not like they'll lose their hardcore fans (the ones preordering it). I hope they will release it as it's own title but the way things sit now I highly doubt it.
While I'm all for free dlc I'm all for paying for well made maps which is why I would have no problem paying for Premium again if they were to go that route again (especially since I'm not a fan of the buying skins route, it works I won't deny it but if I'm going to be spending money to support a game I like I want it to be for something more substantial then a skin for my gun). Honestly I never really noticed a drop in players when the new map packs dropped for BF4, still the same amount that were playing before. The major problem the DLC had were bad maps (I loved the Naval Strike and Dragons Teeth DLC but Last Stand, imo, wasn't really worth the money. Maps were to big for my tastes and catered to our lovely friends the camping snipers) and bad implementation. I still remember the rubber banding problems from the NS DLC.
That's the problem with COD though. One campaign mission will be fantastic, the rest will be complete and utter crap making you wish you never bought the game. This is the reason so many people by COD for it's MP, it was the only redeeming thing from the games (Modern Warfare and World at War were great campaign wise, MW2 and Black Ops were shit (I didn't buy any past BO so I don't know how the plot has gotten better, if it even has)) and now that's pretty much been shot to shit.