And this one again. Sure doing same things 3 times is a bit annoying but don't exaggerate it. Normal+ Nightmare takes around 5-6 hours to run through with rather average speed and it's not that bad.
What kills population is power leveling itself(and any kind of boosting). I remember Cow exp times and it wasn't beginner friendly, newbs were just wandering around no knowing what to do, eventually ending up farming in Terror anyway. New players tend to be really overwhelmed by mod size and very often have progression problems. Rushing them is making it worse.
Imo the only thing to complain about are removed mini games. They were fun(suicidal but yet fun xD) and you had something to do aside. Rewards could be changed but removing them fully was just waste of good game assets.