Been seeing a lot of doomsaying in forums/in-game lately

[Havenchild]

I don't think you are comprehending what I am saying as you are keeping your conversation around content releases for different groups. I may have explained it poorly as well. There are systems in this game that encompasses everyone. Again one of those systems is job design, when that starts to lean one direction to fill a certain niche group you begin to shave off players that are not fans of that direction. When dungeons become easier, something that everyone has to do in order to progress in the game, it starts to shave off players as they find these dungeons boring. Same if dungeons are too difficult people will quit as it is a struggle to progress. It's not about content that being pulled in various directions. It is when the content and systems that all encompasses all players goes in a certain direction is when it affects those various player groups and begins to taper them off.

If you are speaking specifically on the systems and dungeons, this conversation has been repeated ad-nauseum since ARR, but the numbers have reflected the contrary, the playerbase has only grown over the years. Now in terms of design or content difficulty, that seems to yoyo every other patch (or expansion). Emerald EX was more difficult then Diamond EX, but SoS EX as harder than both for example.