I don't understand why people say Old maple was so much better

The only reason I miss the old maple is because monsters used to actually pose a threat. Once the Potential System was released, pretty much everyone, with or without cash, was able to rip through every monster that had the misfortune of actually spawning up. It's not nearly as fun to deal 100k damage when the monsters only have 50-70k hp and can only do 1-2k damage while the player has well over 10k health. The damage dealt by players is wasted, and the damage done by monsters is only a problem for explorer archers and thieves.

Basically, I enjoyed the old system of upgrading equipment where it would help the player at level 100 to kill a monster in 5 hits instead of 7, unlike the new system where it helps a player at level 100 kill a monster in 1 hit instead of 1 hit that's slightly weaker.