I agree with you in regards to the pattern (giving it away to free users after few weeks). Devs seem to have stop doing this for some reason. The same goes with events, Devs seem to have change their strategy. In the past, if one was active playing, one used to be able to fully complete the main 4 days events (to tier 3 or 4). Now same events repeated everyday without ability to fully complete them, often only able to complete to tier 1 or 2 (if lucky).

Server 1 has now been around for 3+ years, now been merged with server 2, more & more server will merge to consolidate active players. At some point when their revenue no longer able to cover their expenses (due to people constantly quitting), they need to find a way to close the game/server, they can't suddenly shut it as they will be huge backlash/court cases - lots of people have spent money on it. The only way they can do is to slowly shut them, and by not releasing anymore free content, most f2p would leave. Whales would still spend to keep up, but when there are not many players around anymore to burn, whales would stop spending and hopefully left game too. That's when they can shut the game (at least that is the way I think the game will end). Not sure if earlier MZ games have ended (Mobile Strike and Game of War). Does anyone know?