I just want a simple old school server in which it's life expectancy, end-game content and replay-ability aren't locked behind paywalls. I don't want "new, never before seen" features which barely add anything to the base game. Neither do I want flashy, obnoxious titles for my character, or a modified premium+ which entices users to spend money in order to get a more significant advantage over people who don't (If you played iSRO prior to 2008, the best thing about premium, and main selling point, was the 1 try login).
I'm so bored of all these new systems that have been introduced over the past years. Coin systems, job systems you name it. They're all the same and follow the same type of precedent. The more money you spend on the game, the more gold you make through silk sales, the better gear you buy. This was never the case on the base game and never should be on private-servers.
What I'd like, which may be a bit dated now, is something similar to ECSRO VIP. A server which has genuine time & effort put into it, at the cost of a 1 time fee of purchasing an account. I don't remember the prices of accounts back in the day (I got mine for free, lol) but it certainly created a demand for them. And hey, even if this doesn't work, create a free & premium battle pass for all I care, in which the progress is determined by either quest points (For example, 5 daily quests which can earn you tier points), killing uniques, you name it. Anything that ISN'T gained by having the best gear in the game and beating others who don't spend.
If there's one thing that private servers don't understand these days is that the only people still left playing the game are either streamers, or people who now have full time jobs and pour all their money into the game because they haven't moved on yet. I'm yet to fully invest any time or money in a server for well over three to four years now, not because I don't like SRO, but because I don't like the way servers are created for one purpose, to squeeze the everlasting life out of it's community before they inevitably close for a 3 month vacation, then re-open under a new name.