I think the truth is somewhere in the middle Belial. Players arent sticking around and the Legendary mode is deserted.
Plenty of players have a T4 but noone puts them into legendary - This is a symptom of a serious problem.
The challenge of any shooter is to compete and improve. To build up and diversify and specialize to the highest level possible. Not simply rinse repeat the same old thing over and over and over and over again.
The "End game" is not a conclusion (I hit level 60 hooray!) but a capability (now I can do the elite dungeons!).
In Dreadnought it is about climbing an arduous grind tree to end up with a T5 ship that you can compete against the best and most veteran players with. Where real skills are needed.
But that its not present: Therefore the game lacks an endgame. We are reduced to sitting in Vet games praying the next random team has someone in it that knows how to heal or that novices wont accidently pop in to fill out the numbers..
The cash shop is aimed towards progression: Buiyng credits to pay for ship and modulke unlocks - and these are mandatory to open up the next tier of ship. It is not unreasonable to be frustrated when you realise that all that grinding, and all that cash spent to get to a T5 is uselss cos.... the game doesnt exist at that moment.
Lastly: One year ago people on the forum were complaining there were no legendary games and were told to wait until more people had T5s.
A year later and there are no games and people are being told "Go to Discord and arrange matches."
Both answers were wrong.
This is disingenuous. Hoping for 16 people to sit and wait for a moment to play a game is not good enough when THE WHOLE POINT of the game is progression is ridiculous.
The truth is that T4 gets you into a legendary game - but people don't bother and people leave the game. THIS is a massive issue.