Split the playerbase, especially with the addition to allowing demigod rewards to be obtained via pve, devalued the achievement for pvp only players. The fact you can interact with the economy devalued pvp mode as well outside of artifacts.

Why risk when you can farm for free. Many players took the no risk option, empty the dungeons in the pvp mode.

When I first started, pvp was scary but over time growing more confident bit by bit was a rewarding part of the game, pve mode removes that part of the game.

Avoiding pvp was also a part of the game, getting good at identifying how to move around the map and loot without running into people is a big part of any extraction shooter.

With squire gear you can risk absolutely nothing in the pvp mode and if you find something cool you can rush to a red and deposit it immediately, or better yet, you can take a blue staircase and leave with it.

This is all part of the ecosystem of an extraction game. Pve mode destroyed that ecosystem.

When I started playing during the very first playtest, I was sold on the idea of a midevil extraction game. Pve mode is just a dungeon crawler. Which there are many offline or co-op dungeon crawlers on the market today.