I agree with the "don't do changes simply for the sake of change" part of the OP, in particular for changes that happen without bothering to ask or even care if the players impacted by it like those changes or not. Some examples are the taking of Aland, the Kusari invasion, and recent gun changes which basically force either slow or fast guns on factions, which seem to have happened literally with a "Don't like it? Ha! Deal with it!" attitude from the side of devs.
Which exact "toys" being taken away the OP is really talking about is not really clear to me though.
What I strongly disagree with is the part where staff shouldn't cater to new players. There are so many things that can be improved concerning the faster integration of newer players that have 0 negative consequences for older players (expanded and more visible help system, improved rule, law, and lore presentation), and they're not being done by staff and even held back by staff when other people do all the work for them.
What a lot people here don't seem to realize is that not letting others contribute new things is just as disrespectful as removing/modifying their or other people's old contributions. What we need to do is find a way to have constructive conversations that will permit us to merge the new and the old and achieve the best outcome.
Something that absolutely does not help in this is that one side demands they be put on a pedestal and make everything about who is popular enough with them to be allowed to contribute, instead of about achieving the best result possible. The latter can not be achieved without taking into account criticism and ideas from as many people as possible.
