Where do we begin?

That, unfortunately, is an impossible goal. There is no way to make no one want to cheat. There will always be cheaters.

However, if your goal is to reduce the amount of people that have been lured to cheat because of the unfairness of the game, that's a more admirable goal, and certainly far more possible (although I'm sure more than a few people have been "lost").

In my opinion, the only way to get to that point without remaking the game, is to have another Big Bang, which in the end will pretty much result in a remake if done correctly anyway.

There's too many things that are wrong, there is no happy end to this. When I realized this over a year ago is when I stopped playing. There are too many core mechanics in the game that require money that to revoke these, or to make them easier to obtain (at the scale that is necessary to fix the game), will anger the people who currently keep Nexon afloat. It's like if you had a life insurance company, and then one day you decided you're going to shoot anyone who walks in the door from now on.

I feel maplestory could be saved even without going into deep investments. Although my perspective is based on an assumption, I feel like I misworded it. There has to be a power advantage for those who spend NX, but as other veterans have pointed out, nearly 1000x stronger is the MAIN poison of the game. Most players who turn to hacks, in general, are looking for a quick turn around. However with the gap being so large with nearly little to no options, it brings more allure, not to mention since the company is seen in a negative light, there's little to no reason to feel any remorse.

With all that being said I feel the greatest impact to both getting a stronger, dedicated player base, and making the path of cheating less alluring, would be to significantly change that gap so that NX spenders have at most maybe a 75% advantage.