New/returning player here. I returned several weeks ago, and I am working myself through all the new content. Which is, of course, not new for the veteran player. I understand that.
As for the future of SWTOR, as I experienced the game till now, it has way more problems with several outdated mechanics (which is ok after 9 years) and an impressive amount of bugs.
I returned for just some weeks now, but I already lost count how many times I had to restart/relog or reset the UI.
Nothing was truly game breaking but it adds up to an, lets say, uncomfortable amount. Cant click this or that, fell through ground, companion stuck, companion lost, Combat Support Droid in FP´s vanishes and cannot be summoned, nodes stuck in ground, and so forth.
An mmo is in constant development but much of these bugs are well known since years and I am sure lots of free players left because of this. So I hope maybe one day they can somehow fix this.