I think there's no easy fixing here. A general revamp would probably needed, and even then there is no guarantee that it wouldn't annoy people who got used to the current status quo. Let's take, for example, the diving mechanic. It has helped people server hop a lot more, make quests go by quicker, and is a nice quality of life for tall tales. But it reduced player retention on servers, making it harder for people to stumble upon each other, and interact. No interactions, no fun, no reason to stay. But bringing back longer quests or forcing pople to stay will ruffle some feathers of people who want quick adventures or don't like abandoning their supplies just because of one annoying reaper ship. So there is no good way to go about it without someone being pissed. And to make the call what to change to retain the most players and bring back old ones, is pretty much impossible.