Remember Chapter 4? Those were the 'late adapters'.
And now! Welcome to Chapter 5 of the 'Technology Adoption Cycle': Featuring - The Laggards.
https://fourweekmba.com/technology-adoption-curve/
It's a lab remember? A lab that has been collecting data on everyone and everything that happens inside SL and has been following the Technology Adoption life cycle model because SL is a lab and is a technology.
We/you are paying for improvements made in Second Life through the years that private contractors and residents, many of which have become private contractors to the lab, have created. The lab absorbs the most talented residents and anything else it wants, when it wants.
Remember, not long ago, they hired Strawberry Singh? They knew she had a big following and added value to SL. You are now helping to pay her salary and are paying the lab for her input. You are paying to be a follower. Why? According to the technology adaption curve, they know that stage 5 users are the laggards. They are loyal followers, resistant to change and skeptical of innovation.
Just out of curiosity, what do you think they are going to do with all of the information they have gathered through the years?