Everyone's always nostalgic to the 'golden days of rp' without realising that specific 'good' roleplayers have permanently left perpheads behind and the playerbase as others have already said matured. Besides i really don't think there's much you can do about 'it' anyway. There's still people doing roleplay events and even in the 'good old days' bazaar used to be really dead. I remember back then waiting for hours and hours trying to sell stuff there. Bazaar's WAY more alive than it used to be. People locked themselves inside their appartments and powergrew too. Your brain just doesn't remember the boring perp days.
Only to future reduce any incentive for current players to play. The game already feels like a grind. Guns being taken ARE a huge financial burden to players. "Raising the cost of living" because the rich have gotten richer will only result in the poor(new) players getting poorer. Further reducing the chances of them sticking around. If people, apparently, just base and raid, that's the only thing keeping them on the server. That's something that should be taken advantage of, not be used against the playerbase.
I started here early 2015. It's been a cops vs robbers server from the start. You may have a point with the fact that people don't grasp the concept of roleplay alot anymore which i feel the same way about. It used to be, slightly more slow paced and there was more casual roleplay and respect towards rules. I think the main issue is the lack of enforcement with certain rules. People started caring about 3.4 because of monetary reasons, not of roleplay reasons. When's the last time you've seen ANYONE care about the car damage rule? bet you have no idea which one 3.29 is out of your head but you can type the words "banana in a pyanama broke 2.1 and 3.4" faster than a 12 year old can ask his mom for the new fortnite battle pass.
Personally, i feel the near militarization of the PLPD's led to the need of large organisations existing to defend themselves against a much more professional and tougher PD. Everyones, including yours, focus is laid upon the large rich organisations and players which forgetting the people it affects the most: new players that join with a friend or two.
essentialy what i'm trying to say is that by fucking up the game's economy to force changes in behaviour will only result in the exact opposite behaviour you intended. It causes psychological reactance.