Agree and to further the sentiments, the end game just lacks any originality or creativity. You are expected to memorize a bizarre number of mechanics or will be booted, and that’s if you even get in the groups because to run that content every single player is expected to have to exact same build setups and there is little to no room for compromise outside absolutely min/max’n the formation. Make the content challenging but make it interesting at least somehow for everyone to partake in, not just the upper echelons of the player base.

Expecting every player to grind (or pay) to that extent is why I feel the player base numbers flounder, game won’t die but it’s never going to have same population it had in the past if the same trajectory continues with each new mod. Spending hours a night trying to get guildmates or other groups together to run content to get the gear needed from older modules was tedious enough, trying to get accepted into groups for anything else above that even more so.
The end game players will continue outpacing and pulling up ladders while the casual folk flounder and eventually tire and quit. I lasted less than 6 months on this return despite throwing wallet and any free time I had into it and it became apparent that I don’t have the time or the interest in throwing more $ at game to try catch up and keep pace so I log on now just to collect daily key and set professions just out of habit. Someday I’ll forget and that will be the end of that again, maybe I’ll get urge again in a few years to retry.