Wipe is not a lie, it's coming soon.
A FOnline server is like a living being, it has to die at some point.
A new generation takes over, or not, but at the end it's always a wipe.
Wipe is coming, sounds even better than with "winter".
Also what braught you to the idea that the community was in decline?
The community has always been small, very small. 2238 hosted around 500 players on average, players who are much older than your average call of duty player. Some players left because they got a job, got married or had children, you name it. Some got bored because they felt they saw everything the game had to offer, and no one can argue with that. Not everyone likes to play on dust2 for ever. The community is split since the closure of 2238, and because of the nature of the game and that wierd gameplay we love so much it will probably never grow alot, no matter the amount of advertising. At best, reloaded session 3 will attract FOnline players from different servers, but I don't think it will ever go beyond what 2238 achieved. Unless Corrosive has a fifth ace in his sleeve, of course. The community has been steady for years, long before khans were a thing (you playing since start of 2238 blablabla yeah), and saying that khans made players leave is giving them too much credit. Players left back in the days when they got constantly fucked up by big factions everywhere in the map.
I think that the player base is a reflection of the game they play, if we want the community to grow, the game has to change somehow. If FOnline stays like it is now, so will the community. Reloaded is a very different FOnline than what 2238 was. Characters are MUCH stronger than what they used to, especially with this OP combat implant bullshit. A new player will quickly understand that he doesn't stand a chance against a fully implanted character, no matter how noob that implant sack is. I'm not saying that we should make the game a carebear or something, but before you could kill a pvp character with a crappy build if you were smart and/or skilled, now you can't. Going back to the faster more dynamic gameplay we had before could give more will to progress to new players. They will know their failure is not only because they didn't farm days to buy a complete set of implants. Most MMOs keep increasing the character's strength update after update because they don't wipe. At the end a character's level or the skill of the player is less important than the gear. Combat implants push the game in that direction. We should do the opposite.
Imagine playing counter strike against players that have more skill and experience but also twice your HP, only frustrating.