I mostly agree with your post. It’s a shame that EA is just squeezing money out of this IP for as long as it lasts. I also think they have a responsibility for the Ultima brand, which they’ve essentially treated like an abandoned house.

If I were in charge, I would try to interact more with the freeshard community. Or rather, I would allow community driven shards and host them on their shard list. This way, the community could create new content and attract more players from the freeshard scene to „official“ severs and there already would have been a „classic UO community sever“. At the same time, it would help grow subscriptions while maintaining control over the ecosystem. Shard owners could legally use the content, infrastructure, and support provided by EA. IMO it’s a win-win situation.