I blame Mod Mark, Design Director. Is there anyone else? He's also the one that's saying he doesn't want "skillers" in the wilderness. Then again, I can't say for sure.
Other than the select few that did what people wanted in 07, the live game J-Mods seem to not care. I mean it's easy to say that and make it look like they're 'listening to the players', but their actions don't reflect it...PvP and the wilderness hasn't changed much for as long as I can remember.
They've done a job and it's showing. Imo they've been trying to players hooked with stuff like free exp. If it wasn't for that who knows what the playercount would be like.