I imagine in 2.x they had to keep and increase the players at any cost, it was a matter of proving that the rebuilt game was and is profitable in order to secure a future. And I'm not saying the developers let breath out and got all, "ok we got the players and subs we can reduce quality now." but we did hear how 3.x nearly killed the the team with the amount of content they had to do, I'd think they deemed this course of action will burn out the team on the long run. Another thing is, as you've said it's been a game for 3-4 years now, new employees may need time to get a feel of the game. It's a vast MMO with lots of history. But yeah, I'm not arguing that old vets have nothing to do, I'm just tossing my two cents on the topic.