I think the wipe will bring the grind back to the server for most people, I do agree new content would be nice, but investing in Devs is the quickest way to sink the server IMO.
Your going to try and find random people that have never played on this server and give them access to all of Asylums files. You have no guarantee these devs, if you can find them, will put out quality content without fucking something up and walking away. In a perfect world with unlimited resources and no consequences paying and bringing on more devs would be a great idea. But, this is not a perfect world and i'm sure Mitch doesn't have access to unlimited resources. You guys have to think of this from Mitch's perspective.
As for the the test wipe personally for the short period of time I did play, the grinding aspect was super fun for me, yes it sucked having to start from scratch, but i made money in ways i never thought i would. I experimented with other ways of making money too.
This IMO has brought more Cartel fights to the server during this test wipe, and has just brought more action and fights to the server.
One thing that I think should be removed on the topic of passive money making is the aging barrels being removed as well. Since they removed everything else why would aging barrels for passive money making be left in?