Minecraft is a really bad example to draw from.
They've been promising us plugin developers an official modding API for over three years now, and have utterly failed to deliver. I stopped working on bukkit mods when dinnerbone said that bukkit was going to be a thing of the past in "just weeks" at minecon 2012.
Here I am, with four dead plugins that don't work because version compatability breaks every single release.
Being honest, I don't see how it is smart to be removing any features/functionality, as long as they don't become an issue.
Improving upon these is probably better than to remove them. And I think BYOND could gain a good deal of things from improving upon what it has. |
That way you could move forward while retaining playable support for older titles. I mean, I do have to say that if developers have abandoned a project and are not seeking to change it any further, then I don't see the point of holding things back for them.