would you leave or stay ?

I don't believe those people are switching back and forth because they are entirely two different experiences, my assumption is not that they want to be stuck in the same 10 patch vortex but rather want to rewind to start over a new game without potential. I don't think players like OP know how to articulate this, but I feel maplestory would be in a much, MUCH better place if they didn't set themselves with such a uncontrolled standard

Removing potential and everything even remotely related to it would make the game worth coming back to, if only to watch the inevitable crash and burn when people realize mobs that give hours worth of exp ACTUALLY TAKE HOURS TO KILL OH pomegranate. Even more delicious if the average person doesn't have enough attack to reach the KB values on the high end grinding mobs and it becomes like attacking the juggernaut and not "lets KB this mob with 99999999999999999 life into a wall for 20 minutes" like it is now. The KB animation will become a rarity again and people will respect it much more! But, like I said, I don't expect this current community to stick around for that, this game is no longer about masochistically grinding your forehead against a brick wall, it's about becoming a one person wrecking crew and soloing bosses that used to actually take the 30 member queue to kill, barely in time at that, not in 7 seconds. My first Zakum run was 3 hours and 45 minutes, and it was the best thing ever. No wheels, no res, nothing, just me, a CB, a DK and a hermit were left at the end, we did the last 60ish% of 3rd body in about 45 minutes, the poor CB bombed so much money he went broke, so, since I got my helm, I gave him every last meso I had, even though it wasn't a seller run or anything, I don't even think those existed yet at the time, the regulars still didn't all have their helms yet.