There's something that those agitating for a classic shard don't seem to get, and it is becoming clear in this thread. At no point in it's lifetime was UO ever perfect. There was no point in UO's lifetime, not even way back in whatever mythical time you happen to think was UO's zenith, where there weren't plenty of complaints about all kinds of issues. If a classic shard is created that reverts to a particular time period all the issues that were present in game, all the imbalances and bugs, all the exploits that have been fixed since then will either have to be fixed, or they will be recreated.
There is something in psychology called "the halo effect". It happens when we tend to think of a subject as all good, or all bad, and in doing so ignore or forget all the evidence that contradicts that general impression. This applies perfectly to the views of many who are asking for a classic shard. They seem to think that at some point in UO's history there was a time when the game was as perfect as it will ever be, and forget that there was never a time when UO wasn't plagued by bugs, imbalances, exploits, cheats, haves and have-nots, anti-social pricks, and the list is endless.
I don't have a problem with a "classic shard" if it replaces Siege and Mugen, but I don't want to see a third rules set being supported that pulls development bandwidth away from the core game as it exists now. Because if a "classic" shard is created the devs aren't going to be able to simply set it up and let it run. There are going to be bugs that will need to be fixed, exploits that will need to be fixed, imbalances that will need to be addressed, and development decisions that will have to be made.