...or what's left of it. Players come in these free to play games and judge if the product is enjoyable, very enjoyable or not good enough, which is when they stop playing it obviously. Those who enjoy it continue to play it for free, those who enjoy it a lot are happy to spend $ on it.
I've seen GAZ staff shrink, people getting laid off and essential content not being released. I mean why would I spend $ on this game other than because it has this IP? I do want to spend $ for it, but I can't when I have nothing interesting to keep me playing long term.
GAZ already has invested a lot of $ to design this game, the leveling process and all the different (fully voiced) heroes with their animations, creative combat designs, costumes and so on. So, it will be very ignorant to throw all of that investment and abandon ship just because players are more savvy today, where they know what they want and what are they getting for their $ in return.
Player retention is the key to any successful game and when their game is designed about gearing heroes to overcome powerful foes with smaller and larger, organized groups, yet those powerful foes have not come in year+ naturally players will have no purpose to work together, socialize, where it actually makes them feel like they are part of an actual MMORPG and spend quality time overcoming these foes, which in return would reward them not only with gear, but unique titles, combat animations, hero voice, pets and so forth.
I mean, it's not rocket science. It's a simple PvP with the producer vs the consumer. Producer wants $, consumer wants entertainment for his $. It's that simple and one eventually has to throw the towel for the sake of cutting a deal, otherwise both end up being the loser.