Sorry Suzsi, but I have to agree with the original poster. SWG DID die due to dumbing down. The first step in the process was the Combat Upgrade. The nail in the coffin was the NGE. When they dumbed down all of the variety of professions you could be to about 6-8, that drove the population of the game away. Not to mention all of the people who grinded out for months to become a jedi, only to find out on the first day of the NGE that you could be a jedi just by choosing it as a profession.
I played for about 4-5 of those 8 years, including time through the NGE, and I can tell you that that was when it went downhill. After the release of the Mustafar expansion, we went for over a year without any new content! Oh and when did they FINALLY introduce atmospheric flight? That's right, within the last 3-6 months of the game's existence.
The only thing I saw that that game still had going for it when I left (circa 2006) was space and space combat. That still is the measuring stick for which SWTOR space content will be judged, in my opinion.