Many of them are playing it because that is litterally thier only option and most of them would rather play an official version… many of them donate to help keep the servers running. its not a matter of free to play… sure for some it would be, but dont assume that is everyone. plus northdale and lightshope already confirmed they are closing down once classic launches, so they will either flood kronos or flood classic servers… and kronos is known for shady business practices and its different coding so not many people enjoy it / play it as much as they do northdale since it uses the nostalrius core.