Larry hypothesized that osw made players quit (likely after being stripped). Although I agree some players may quit, I feel that I have seen far more players rebound, rebuild, and continue (support to those that do).
I would add that I have also seen many players quit precisely because without osw, the game is no different from the plethora of other apps in which the entire goal is to grow.
Unfortunately, the EBs have grown from something to do in-between wars, to a necessity. This is because EBs allow for such fast growth, as well as bank and equipment accumulation, that when a clan goes to osw (or even system wars), they start to fall too far behind the clans who focus on their EBs.
In other words, in order to compete in an osw, a clan must constantly do EBs; and that "constantly" is to the exclusion of the osw for which the clan does EBs to prepare for.
On top of that, we now have these "hunts" that force players to hit only EBs in case some of the equipment dropped would make other clan too powerful to osw.
In conclusion, I do not know what could be done to stop the EB cycle that has changed the game from something unique to what it is rapidly becoming (yet another grow game), but I hope that recognizing what made this game so compelling will help start the conversation to consider changes for the better.
Calm