I'll go a bit more in depth with this.
[Story time]
Runescape was a great game (hence why you may like 2007 more) however they decided to make a huge new update (emphasis on huge) overhauling the fighting mechanics, adding in potential pay to win bullstuff, and making everything generally much easier. Once these sequence of updates happened tens of thousands of people quit because it was no longer Runescape. The community made enough of an effort (and Jagex presumably experienced enough of a loss in revenue) to have a poll made to have the old Runescape come back as a separate server, the poll passed but only got enough for players requiring membership to play. Now they decided to make it free and Old School Runescape has nearly as many players as the regular Runescape.
Interesting.
Yeah, i really think they kinda bumped off a lot of their previous loyal players with the big updates.
I kinda stopped playing due to other games and occupations, but i found the thing with the updated lumbridge and fighting mechanics a horrible mess and stopped bothering.
A shame, i used to play almost every holiday event for the holiday items (and seeing how it progressed).
Some things like the wheel of fortune and stuff i didn't mind at all and a small part of the member stuff opening up to free to play (like 2 rather small areas and the start of summoning skill) was amazing. :)
Guess i wasn't the only one that felt this way.
Poll