Guys, maps have been gone for nearly 2 years. At the time they were removed, over 80% of servers used some form of slate. Got that? 80% of servers did not use maps at all. Most of the remaining 20% just used bedroom because it was first on the list.
The natural course of a game is for the userbase to grow to a peak and then decrease over time. If you want to keep the active user count up, you have to attract new users. And guess what? New users aren't going to play a game that looks like it's from 2001. They're not even going to try it. They're going to look at the screenshots and leave.
2 years. The maps were removed 2 years ago. The userbase did not implode. In fact, it didn't decrease at all. Not even a blip. It's pretty much held steady, fighting the natural life-cycle of a game.
In my expert opinion, if maps had not been removed in favor of improved graphics, the game would already be dead.