Firstly, I just want to say, I'm glad you guys are having this discussion/debate here rather than on discord, I feel like I miss out quite a bit these days in regard to issues with the game/mechanics by refusing to use any form of social media/chat platforms (bar my one exception, steam) and it's a shame when the forum is right here and basically ignored for the most part! So, thanks, it's interesting to hear everyones viewpoint and devs responses to them.
Secondly, I'm basically of the same opinion as Jordan. I agree that bounding boxes, grid lines and hiding stuff
is ugly but there are times it's necessary. I think the majority just use them when needed, I wouldn't play with any of these things constantly active but having them makes life a lot easier in certain situations. I'm not a 'powerplayer' so I'm coming from a slightly different perspective I suspect, but, as Bunzy says, having these features enable us to have neat and organized layouts which in the long run make for less ugliness.
With regard to the camera options, I only play with badcam unless searching for new quest givers, ortho is both restrictive and awkward and I find it way too frustrating and unpleasant to play that way for any length of time.
The changes you did make to the default client were great, esp adding the quality of items, but imho you need to go just a bit further if you want ppl to use it over the custom clients. The population always drops drastically when the clients get broken, the only reason it picked up quickly this time was because ElSid gave a fix for Amber but if you look at the last time Amber was broken the population dropped dramatically for almost a week! You guys know this, which is why you made the changes to default.
I would not play if I didn't have any option other than default as it stands atm and I love haven, it's been my main game for ten years now and I would hate to give it up completely but it's true what shubla says, we have been 'spoilt', we are all used to playing with less frustration and considerably more ease with the custom clients and going backwards is not a viable option in terms of enjoyment of the game.
I kinda think you guys are shooting yourselves in the foot over the last couple of years if I'm honest with a lot of the changes you have made to combat bots which then ultimately slows down the game and adds further tedium for all, add to that the possibility of the end of public custom clients and you are seriously not going to have a playerbase left at all.
Saying that though, as I've said to you before, I do feel for you, trying to balance the game and please everyone is an impossible task ... good luck!
