I missed out on a number of years for ragnarok in general. When I had gone back to start on renewal it was pretty fun (this was shortly after 3rd jobs were in) but I felt like I missed out on a huge chunk of the game just due to everything already being out at the time, older areas that I hadnt explored I had to explore solo or with a buddy. Prices are all over the place due the game just having the time to grow the economy. Think I quit around lvl 114? or so, most my friends had basically gotten bored around then as well. Think max lvl at that time was 120 or 150... cant really remember.
I rejoined due to the RO:T server, its a bit buggy, and crashes almost daily, and honestly for a server with a max lvl of 99, I feel the exp is a bit too fast.
There are many things I would love to see added to RO:T (Cmon give my homunculous 2 simple commands of defend itself and attack with me)
But for now, its a nice enjoyable experience, vaguely reminds me of the iRO beta days.
The markets not inflated (yet), and most the cash shop items can be purchased fairly cheap through vendors (VIP being 130-150k is very affordable imho)
People are partying which is nice to see, as when I played on Renewal, it was pretty rare to see people on my trip to 3rd job, as most were already doing the 100+ areas, rest were rather antisocial(or bots) .
As ninJedi said, RO is a social game, These people rushing off to max lvl or dual accounting for the sake of not partying with others, are more or less ruining their own experience, and will likely run back to Renewal when its open. For now, play RO:T, see if its right for you, then go try Renewal when its alive, and make the choice.
Since this servers updates are so young, I plan to stick around and try out all the new areas I missed out on when they arrive.