How many people are REALLY still playing Maplestory?

If people are not playing the content, then the natural conclusion should be that the content is not worth doing.
The reason people do not bother with the PQ prizes is because the PQ prizes are not even valued at the time it would take to get them.

The entry limit would be more reasonable if all PQs were equal, but they clearly are not.
People only participate in the PQs that net them the best XP.
No other reward will ever be added to make them worth the time because such rewards would break the gearing model that is so reliant on p2w.

I actually have not play since the turn of the year precisely because I finally got exhausted with a game that only allowed my full participation if either I shelled out money or devoted my days to grinding a ferris wheel of nearly identical coin-grinding 'events' instead of providing a natural progression through central content (i.e. PQs).

if people would actually complete the PQs they'd find that the rewards have a set effect that gives them, in addition to the typical stats, a boost in PQ exp.