I can write a post at work since I can type quickly (Thanks to years of playing CF!)
These days, I'm past looking to Imms for solutions, as I think a lot of us former players are. Like you said, the ones who maybe could change things are not inclined to or do not have the time to. The lesser Imms can do a little with the RP environment, but nothing systemic. Even a cabal shake up though or any big changes would only bring a temporary spike to the counts. The players as a whole need to make it an attractive sandbox to play in. A new class may get you in the door, but really only other players will keep you coming back.
I have a wife, a toddler and an infant, and a 2 hour daily commute for work. My free time is scant, so CF would have to improve a lot to entice me to commit any time to it since I basically have maybe 1-2 hours a night of actual free time, if I'm lucky and the kids actually sleep. I mean, I play a mobile game on an iPad for a little while each night, because I can drop it at a moment's notice where as you do that in CF and people start slinging shit at you cause they think you log out for reasons related to the game. I could just as easily play CF, but I don't find the current environment enticing enough.
But CF would be far more appealing to me if I knew I was playing with a bunch of you glorious bastards again. Except for Wrathpuppet. If he came back I'd just multi-kill him for old times sake, just to figure out all the creative ways to kill his char. In 3000+ hours of barding over probably 6 years, he was the only person I ever recall landing a KB on using roundhouse.