You correctly analyzed a greater OSRS gold player count also raises revenue from MTX and other similar streams of income and then introduced the question why MTX were on a decrease recently despite RS3 participant numbers going down for a couple of years. Well, the answer to that issue is that osrs bonds were released in March 2015 as a form of MTX, which probably carried a large potion of the MTX revenue in 2016-2018, regardless of the decrease of RS3 players/MTX gains (according to the huge jump in MTX revenue from 2015 to 2016). Currently, since RS3 is still the principal portion of MTX earnings for Jagex, a dwindling RS3 player base means that OSRS bond earnings alone cannot maintain MTX revenue at the same level, hence falling in 2018.
To return to my first point: I have no idea how Jagex plans on increasing player retention, since they gave up among those 2 (arguably 3 in the event that you rely skilling) things that made RS uniquely distinctive from other MMOs with EoC. Like I said CB systems in other MMOs are much more fleshed-out despite Jagex trying their very best to fix the mess that was initial-release EoC. Do not get me wrong, the battle system is in reality balanced and way better than it has ever been and demands vast wisdom to master it, however, a new player looking for an MMO that is concentrated only around battle and epic boss experiences will 9/10 times not select Runescape because his game of choice.
I can't help but think Jagex is trying to reinvent the wheel every couple of decades, by attempting to conquer other MMOs at their own game rather than focusing on the unique strengths, that differentiate their game from the dozens of other cookie-cutter MMOs out there, and building upon those.
This is one of those few responses in this thread that feels officially accurate. RS3's combat system has been broken ever since the launch of EoC, which basically causes new supervisors to need to skip said broken-ness for the boss to really do things. Soloable bosses intended for 10 players reveals the inherent levels of broken existing in the combat system. BiS might cost 10m/hr because that is the elitist mindset -"that I want to utilize BiS" - when you never"need" to. A balance of cheaper gear and BiS equipment should be the mindset of the player - not"need" the best.
Bear in mind when travelling to bosses was part of the adventure of said boss, such as DKs? The existence of supervisor portals is a huge problem within old school runescape gold as that causes said loot from bosses to crash since kills per hour increases drastically and returning takes just 10 minutes. Not positive if it's only me, but there is a percentage of gamers who truly understand the concept of"Game Balance" and their comprehension is better than any JMod's perspective on balance.