It wouldn't make that big of an impact, apart from rune items that aren't dropped from monsters. And as was said before me, why should i spend hours & hours to cut, let's say 1k yew longs, when I could make so much more within a few minutes at gwd.
The only thing I see left that they could do is give f2p yew long & shortbows with rune arrows. The only problem with that is that rangers would then dominate anything pvp based in f2p.