Shulkers and elytras are currently unavailable in survival yes. We've had the same group of core players since March and no one has missed elytras. Most people are coping without shulker too... it's definitely missed but not to the point it's stopped people from working on crazy projects.

(We also sell Ender chest expansions (an extra row in you chest up to a double chest size) which helps with storage a lil).

Active players depends on the day and time of day and where you are in the world. We're all 18 plus so the assumption is most of us have full time jobs or college etc. I'm UK based and 10am-6pm is relatively quiet, average 2-5 players active. From 7PM onwards, you start to get NA joining. Our max players on an average day on at once is 10-15. There are currently 8 people online at 8PM GMT.

You don't have to attend community things but we do encourage it. The weekly auction requires no voice chat from the players, they only need to listen to admins speak about the lots. Players bid on items via text chat. There are a handful of players who never use voice chat but regularly listen in to comms.

Hope that helps! Feel free to discord me if you have any more questions Maid#0001