GGG sold out their "vision" years ago, and now want to go back to it.

I first played the game around the time act 3 was added, so it's been many years that I've been playing. It used to be nothing like the game we have now, it definitely felt like the game Chris Wilson keeps rambling about. Thing is, that game from back then wasn't nearly as popular. Personally it seems like they sold out their vision in order to boost player count and appeal to a broader audience who wouldn't be interested in a slower, more grindy game. They made the game faster, crafting more accessible, increased player damage time and time again.. and it worked. Every time they did this they gained more and more players as they strayed further and further from their "vision", but now that they have (had) an extremely large player base they decide to try and reverse a lot of these things. Almost feels like they intentionally set out to build up the players that would become invested in the game, not just from a time stand point but from a monetary standpoint as well. It's hard for people to just completely drop something have invested time and money in, and even worse if it is turning into something they wouldn't have gotten invested into in the first place. How many people that play this game really would have spent time playing the grindy, slow paced game that they envision this game to be? How many people here would have spent money on it?