Not to mention all the folks who just chill invisible. They're at least passively following the game if not playing currently. Is it so hard to believe that most of those people will drop $10 to re-sub/un-sub anytime new content gets released?
I virtually never see the complaint that this version of the game isn't fun, people generally complain that they want to be able to play it more.
It's not a major time investment like starting up a WoW or MnM account and taking a char the distance. Once Kunark's out it'll be easy enough to drop some cash for a few weekends melting the new zones and checking out what the custom stuff is all about. Then un-sub, guilt-free.
I'm currently chilling in Night Harbor on MnM with /lfg tag on fletching arrows, while passively doing a Hole dc and chatting in Gen chat on the next monitor. They don't really compete when you can always drop what you're doing in EQL without risk of wasting time. It's a great time to be a retro mmo fan.
People are worried that in a year there won't be an EQL server when for all we know Velious will be out, reincarnation will be out, Artes will be out, and that number in the Discord might be higher.