Do I return wait for eternity or has the ship sailed?

Some backstory if your interested:

I played Mabinogi back when I was in early highschool (15 years ago) and fell in love with the game. The sense of exploration, learning as you go and laid back feeling was exactly what I needed. I'm typically very antisocial and didn't talk to people much but still found the community very open and friendly. Even making a few friends I would talk with both in and out of the game. I still remember meeting up in one of the towns and messing around with the music system getting scrolls to play LoZ or Vocaloid music. Unfortunately as time progressed I got busy with college and real world stuff and stopped playing altogether. I tried jumping back in maybe like 4 years ago or so and just felt completely overwhelmed both in story and mechanics so I quickly dropped it once more. By chance reddit decided to suggest this community and I saw this Eternity overhaul was coming at some point. I don't really have much time to commit to videogames anymore(my job takes me away from home 10+ days at a time) and I don't really want to look up a guide on optimizing gear/skills. Has this game turned into hardcore tryhards? Is the whimsy and joy of taking things slow and exploring places still there or is it just grind and dungeonfests? Will it even be worth returning or am I just going to be missing out on fun events by not being able to play for weeks at a time? Is this Eternity overhaul going to revitalize and make the game better for new/returning players or is it more just to keep the long-term players playing?

tldr: Haven't played this game in over a decade and am wondering if I should return now despite not having much time to play or wait until Eternity drops and how the welcoming/new player friendly the game and community is.