I find the latest OSRS updates to be very interesting however I simply don't have the time to play it again since I'm very busy with irl stuff. I don't see myself ever playing osrs again for this reason, however a well scripted private server is something I would consider because it would only take me a few days to reach the endgame content rather than a few months on the actual game.
There are also people that can't afford to pay monthly subscriptions which is another reason why private servers are so successful. (An example of how successful a private server can be for these reasons -
http://i.imgur.com/82Bc3cW.png)
On a side note I'm really glad to see that the new team is posting changelogs and asking for feedback, this is a huge change from the months of silence and countless bugs that we experienced around 5 months ago