OK, here is the situation:
With all of the changes to the game, from beginning to the present, we are dealing with an entirely new generation and mentality of players. I'm not knocking newbies, or relatively newer players, but they don't know the same UO that we (few) used to.
We all identify with the term "veteran player" differently. To me, it's the same ones that were playing the original, as I did. To others, it could be starting with Renaissance. Or ML. Or a year ago.
If you have quit playing this game (but sometimes want to look back and try again) or if you have been playing since day 1 (which is very, very rare these days) you are always going to look back to when you first started and the game was new to you.
The players of today don't know what it was like to have to forage for reagents in Moonglow, or to only carry around apples and not give out counts when you got PK'd just to not give the satisfaction. Or that Fire Field was dangerous. Or that a real good fight with a very skilled player or group used to be better than any designer drug that's currently on the planet. Or that you didn't always start out with 1000's of blessed gold and items. They might have a heart attack IRL if they accidentally got into Felucca somehow.
If the "classic shard" or the revamped siege were to happen, it wouldn't work. Why? Because the mentality is different. People didn't always gank. In fact, if you were caught as even so much as stealing someone's regs during a 1v1 to interrupt a fight, you would have gotten grieved so bad you would have needed to switch shards. Nowadays, it's all about the gank. Sure, not all PVP or PK'ing was exactly "honorable," but at least most did it with purpose. What's the purpose now?
The KEY WORD in this scenario is: ACCOUNTABILITY. There is none anymore. Getting ganked on Siege now is different than when you got ganked in the old(er) days of Siege or even the older days of UO. Why? Because eventually, you could always find some form of revenge and the people committing those crimes accepted the consequences of their actions. That's called accountability.
When you work your butt off and get a set of armor, only to get phantom-phuqqed and invisi ganked by someone you've never heard of and will never see again, there is no accountability or recourse. And that doesn't just upset people, it pisses them off and makes them want to quit.
The "give me this" and "give me that" mentality is what has caused the game to go through all of these changes. Players of today don't understand about house wars, or people actually being able to break into houses and rob you. There is no longer any fear of loss, which (and I know everyones style is different, but this was my UO) means that the people who are on siege, whether it be last resort or "just because they like a challenge" automatically get labeled as the dark, masochistic people that should RoT in their darkness on their dark shard. And that opinion unfortunately is the majority of the player base, on the majority shards.
Forgive me for being overly nostalgic here but if you are not happy playing anymore, then you need to take a break. Don't flat out quit, or delete, or cancel, but just take a break. See if you feel differently after a month or two. And then maybe another month or two.