Most of the staff team is great and put a lot of work in, even if you don't directly see that. Compared to previous years, it's much better.
Saying that, I think there definitely needs to be a mindset shift from trying to grow, to retaining the players that are already here.
There's a lot of old practices still in place that are limiting the longevity of the server, not limited to:
Taking weeks to get a reply on features needed to benefit current roleplay (leasing and similar applications)
Leaving ban appeals unanswered for long periods
Banning for excessively long times that are no longer viable
In 2024, it'll never hit those numbers again, but bit by bit the player count is dropping and I believe the above contributes to that when there are now other options available for people to play. Pair that with an obvious drop in quality, something needs to change before LS-RP is no longer why LS-RP was great.