You have really missed a lot of the past of this community. Consider that the very English community is relatively young, compared to the original German fan base. However, it was with the Edain Mod opening up to the broader international community that we have actually experienced the golden age of the project. The finest hour.
According to what I know, moving back to the BFME1 system had always been the secret dream of most of the Edain Team. The release of the 4.0 version thus marked the beginning of a new era, coinciding with the birth of an official English forum and culminated in the well-deserved victory of the MOTY title. It kind of was the climax of a crescendo of brilliant concepts, huge surprises for the community and the implementation of many elements from the Hobbit trilogy. The finest hour, indeed. And, in all honesty, I doubt that we will ever reach those levels of development once again. Yet, coming from someone who's often gazing at past things with an antiquarian and slightly melancholic spirit, we should now focus on what is to be and on how we could concretely affect this forum positively. The Edain Mod is still incomplete and needs the care of all.
Additionally, let us not forget that some team members have too been standing beside Ealendril since the remote days of the Mod. We still have incredible talents and a wise leadership choosing the just path which the project is to tread. And, if there is something that did improve in the meantime, I would say that it's the community itself. Those glorious days were truly filled with joy and pride, albeit the international community suffering from the voluble temperament of some of its members, escalating sometimes in totally rebellious acts. So, all was a bit wilder and messy, back at that time. We now have the privilege to be into a stabler forum, while an own English internal forum was established as well, comprised of known faces. There are a lot of things we can feel lucky about