Since RS gold proven to work. Without upgrades like this runescape would perish, not just from a game perspective, but from a business perspective. Jagex in the end of the day is a business that must pay its employees, pay tax and most of all make a profit. If they didn't keep runescape on par with contest it would quickly lose out.
Progression and adaption is key to all things in life, but with technology it is even more significant. You make the point that people have become the dominant race through altering their sorroundings, but that is a very different thing. I really don't know how old you are but think on the previous twenty years - weas technology users, have had to adapt - through using VCR to CD to DVD, through the usage of distinct interfacing devices (touchscreen is a massive one).
From the world of engineering, which gaming falls into, adaptation is nessecary from the end user. I'm confident you'd rather see Runescape stay current with its competition and survive a lot more years - however with a backwards attitude of"no more significant upgrades cos we don't like them" runescape is place to slowly burn out.
EoC is not actually the issue. To me, it is simply more clicking for exactly the same outcome, and the highlight is having the ability to queue emotes. WoW I utilize 80 strange keys and there is a minigame involved with working out DPS improvements or exercising new tactics in PvP. Although I'm an old fan of thoughts commanding foes off cliffs.
The way EoC came into being is the issue. Imposed upon players. 1 Jmod recently published about a poster on forums revealing some bugs in BA, that it was great constructive comments. After posters remarked that these bugs had been found and delivered to Jagex from the beta, yet they still made it to reside. So players were not involved in buy RuneScape gold the beginning, some 2 years back, nor at the end.