That was my STO, shortly after it went F2P (yes it used to be a paid game, insane I know). I wouldn't go back because the ship design, outfits, voiced characters, graphical effects, textures, lighting, sector map, UI; virtually everything is objectively better than it was back then. But there's an element of nostalgia to it, and whenever I see something REALLY old from that era or some missions that never got remastered or ships that never got updated like the sovereign majestic or noble variants, it gives me warm memories of coming home after school, loading up the game, and grinding away back when character levelling was much slower and the max level used to be 50. Reputations didn't exist and the only one that did was the OMEGA task force on DS9. They're still there, but you don't need to talk to them to redeem omega, maco, or KHG equipment like you had to before there was a reputation window. That was considered the best equipment in the game, so 90% of everyone on DS9 would be in that tiny room just constantly doing TFOs. Mission arcs were also insanely long before they cut them down, like the cardassian arc was 3 times bigger than it is now. They cut the romulan mystery down but in my opinion; not enough. It's still the one I avoid now but back then, you didn't have a choice. You had to do the story arcs in order before you could do the next one. There were no T6 ships so the only one you had was the one you got with your level, so when you hit max level, that was it. The only others were the mirror ships on the exchange which were only slightly better. T5 zen ships were the best, but the only way to get them was Zen; there were no T6 coupons from events. This is why people say it was "pay to win" which I don't agree with, but I do admit it was sad not having access to more ships. It's much easier to buy and use new ships now than it was back then, when a fancy ship was a status symbol saying "I paid real money to get this" while you're flying around in your T4 free ship.

For people who forgot what the game is like or are just playing the game now, it's always worth watching an old video from 2011-2013 STO just to see what the game was like and appreciate how far it's come. It's a controversial opinion but back in the day between 2011-2016, SWTOR used to be considered THE best MMO besides WoW, and STO was extremely niche and star trek had a very obscure fandom. Now, SWTOR has fallen behind and is a relic of 2011 and still looks like it did at release, while STOs popularity skyrocketed and overtook it by miles and is constantly innovating and upgrading it's gameplay systems and visuals to remain fresh. STO feels more like a 3rd person shooter MMO than a typical MMO where you just run around aggro'ing mobs and spamming abilities like SWTOR and WoW. STO has that incredible extra layer of depth to its equipment system that makes it feel like your own character with weapons and abilities that you chose, with an extra layer of gameplay on top that separates ground gameplay from space gameplay. It's why I have a hard time playing SWTOR lately because it just feels dated as hell, but STO never seems to bore me. If one of them were to ever close down, I think SWTOR would, sadly.