<I need some time to put together my answer.> :P

But it seems that all-or-nothing is the going meme here. People saying it was all horrible back then, or all great, or whatever. The truth is more subtle and common-sense - there have been some great improvements to the game since 2008~ and also some detrimental changes. And those changes are appreciated differently by different players. It is very complex and so the universal "it is better" or "it is worse" is not useful, imho. Some things are better, some are worse.

I personally liked the old party xp system, and I dislike the XP Avalanche afk thing in Aby Sandsweepers, especially since the Rambo BLM updates. Old xp parties were more social and involved more individual skill plus effort. To me that made them more fun than just leeching and watching numbers go up.

I liked level 75 player and 75 gear cap. It was simpler and you could use stuff you farmed years ago. I don't like my gear being re-outdated all the time.

So those are the things I miss. I don't miss running really slowly lol. I don't miss waiting for airships. And I love the HP nexus warp system. I also like the level synch and gear scaling systems a lot. So I would play on a level 75 server for sure, but only if it wasn't 100% retro timewarp, and included *some* of the positive changes (such as movement speed and HP nexus etc.) that have been added since 2008~.

But I also see that it is an unlikely thing to happen, because of the cost/return axis, and SE money being put into new content rather than old, which I can't say is a bad thing.