You know, in order for UO to survive, it needs to bring in new players while keeping current players. I can tell you wholeheartedly that getting rid of the EC will be the best way to kill the game because it will get no new players if you force them to learn it on the CC, especially if they are familiar with any other "modern" game (and I say modern lightly, pretty much anything from the early 2000's or later).
The CC is just clunky. Those who are "CC or die" have grown up on the CC and learned the game on it, and I get the nostalgic feeling. But asking for them to flat out kill the EC, is asking them to kill UO.
I never played UO back in the day, I came to UO because a friend that used to play it back in the day wanted me to try it. I tried the CC and it immediately turned me off from the game. There was no tutorial, no instructions on how to set anything up. The menu system is HORRIBLE (dark grey text on a grey background, really?). I had spent a couple hours with my friend, having them instruct me on how to setup/change what should be the most basic things in the CC. Then let's hope you aren't a keybinder instead of a clicker, because once you setup your keybinds for macros, they all fire off while trying to type anything...
After sensing my frustration with the CC, my friend recommending me to try the EC (which they admitted to never trying themselves). I can tell you the transition into UO with the EC was SOOOOOOO much better for me. It has a much more modern feel than the CC -- and I'm not talking about the graphics, I'm talking about the functionality. It is so much more user friendly, especially for someone trying to get into the game for the first time.
It seems like most of you CC users that downright hate the EC all mention the graphics. Honestly, I personally couldn't care less about the graphics of 2D vs 3D. Kill the EC "3D" graphics and make everything use the CC assets for all I care. But the functionality of the EC is far superior to that of the CC.
This poll really needs a 3rd option. CC, CC with 3rd Party Add-ons, and EC. I'd wager that most of you that use the CC would tick the option for also using 3rd party add-ons like UOA, UOAM, etc. Is the CC really superior when you have to rely on extra programs running just to make it functional for you?
Honestly, it's sad that your nostalgia for the CC is blinding you to the functionality of the EC and some of you are asking to completely kill off the EC.