That ship has sailed, would probably piss so many people off they would actually lose money from closing accounts if they did away with shields now.
Long term planning, frequent global event arcs, bug fixes, would do a lot more to keep/attract payers than anything they could do.
Hell, they can't even figure out what they want EJ to be like, even after all this time.
Mesanna says they ahve something for the Holidays in December besides Artisan Festival, Kyronix says at the GL M&G that there will be an artisan festival...so what is the answer? Does anyone know? If the two main team members don't know, who does? LOL
And in the meantime, as the ship sails listlessly with no firm course, more houses are dropping...even on Legends.