What made Pika enjoyable for many of us was the community built through interactions between players. Players didn't always have what they needed for a build, so there were more in-game exchanges and donations going on. We were always playing with or competing with another player because it was set up to provide a more interactive experience.
During the last HCLand period, Survival had several more active players. Huge farms weren't too profitable, so players were more creative with builds, shops, and other ways to get money. There was basically no lag if you had a good connection. The main downfall was getting bored once you got rich. I couldn't find much reason to complain outside of bugs and scam, which were resolved via forums.
Before the new economy, most of the problems with Survival were fixable just by reading through suggestions. For example, changing invisibility potions to show player names.
From here, the server will emphasize either community or economy:
To get a better community experience, the best option involves rolling back the economy changes and working more on anti-scam and additional content, like competitive events.
To get a better economy, the best option would be keeping the money economy and focusing more on making it a business game. It would be more like creative mode with scarcity than SMP.
