Ecc for example it seems as though its starting to slowly go down hill, and once you start its hard to recover unless you do a massive overhaul.

 

Ah yes, because the one single personal example that you may or may not have pulled out of your ass clearly overrides the actual philosophy that's been tested and proven in every service industry for decades. My mistake.

You're arguing business and economics with someone who literally studies business and economics on a regular basis here chief. Do some basic math and quit while you're ahead

 

Based on your lack of knowledge it seems as though you are pulling everything out of your ass. The point being is less complicated than you think, less people = less money = server doesn't run. So eventually yes the server will come to its end, now if we reinvest we might not have this problem. Businesses who reinvest tend to last longer and turn more of a profit. We should do the same. I did the basic math it came out correct i think your answer is a tad wrong, chief.

 

People have been saying ECC will close since 2011.
We're not going anywhere.

However I invite you to check out the following websites:
www.minecraftservers.org
www.minecraft-server-list.com

Perhaps you'll find something nicer to play on. This is a hardcore economy server, and I won't be changing prices/feature access after 6-7 years because someone wants it for free. In fact, there are 100s (yes literally 100s) of people with over $1,000+ worth of features in their accounts who have not paid a single real life dollar.

Solution: Go online, grind EcoDollars, and get someone to buy the features for you. Making this server super-easy is what will kill it.

TL;DR = OP has no idea what they are talking about and has never managed a server of this caliber.