I picked it back up the other day ultimately thanks to this thread and remembering how much better things were in their early days, and am giving it another go, as I ultimately put it down giving their later offerings a shot. They've added in Adventure Sync, which, in conjunction with Quantum Capsules, is something I've been after for awhile, particularly now that I no longer live in a city (it lets you dupe items you already have based on walking distances...very handy if you're not in an area where there are people to easily come together to make P8 farms). Even with fewer players around I instantly got sucked into some adversarial shenanigans with another player or two in town, which was always the fun of the game in the first place.

Niantic would do well to remember its roots.