Sorry if someone mentioned this (I haven't read all the posts) but there's a different between simplifying the game, and making it more accessible. I'm all for making more accessible. Tier the gameplay (I'm being vague here because I'm trying to speak from a high concept POV) so that all existing players get to keep all the depth of gameplay that they are used to, but people new to the game get a kind of "lite" version that might limit access to aspects of the game due to the simplified experience, but allow them to get invested in playing, and open up the deeper aspects of game play when they want. I can't really elaborate on the how since that isn't really my area of expertise, but I think accessibility would be a great and incredibly difficult aspect of UO to improve upon.
But this is just my armchair opinion.
-Grimm