2013 player here (check my forum account) to be honest the ones keeping this game alive are the old players that are on and off the game and are constantly grinding events for lb rewards, and yes i agree that this game isn't beginner friendly but if you have a lot of money that you can spend on this specific game then this it is easy peasy. It is indeed rough for f2p players and ive seen a lot of solid suggestions in this thread that might actually benefit the game and it's new players, thus it all boils down to the devs on how will they handle the current situation of the game.