Well I'm sure that come into the equation indeed. As I never played with that but rather followed with game updates fairly quickly back in the days I never had any issues as I followed retail logic for economy.
Still playing the same over and over gets boring. I lost my player base (the one that followed me since C1) when I sticked with H5 too long. It was just boring to always do the same shit, and custom content (not armor and shit I don't like it, personal taste) never lasted long.
I do get that people doesn't like what happens after H5, and maybe for most people here, way sooner, yet I don't get why people keep opening with the same old nostalgia stuff that never last (sometimes I wanna play some old console game but it never last).
Is it because most admin are now are not dev just buying pack around that provide mostly IL/ H5 ? (how can someone join such a server it can't succeed) Is it because the player base is really bigger for older chronicle ? Would a new leak happen, would people finally move forward ? I'm kinda lost with player expectation :D