They fired 100 developers? Wow! If that's not the game's death knell, I don't know what is? Too bad. On a related note, I thought I read somewhere that Turbine's license is due to expire this year. That could be a good thing if someone better picks it up, although of course developing a completely new LOTRO game will take several years at least.
Palantir - Speaking as a crafting master in GW2 and STO, I thus far have found the LOTRO crafting system lacking. As someone else here I think noted a while back, I suspect the problem seems to be that low level players are challenged getting access to crafting resources in several key disciplines, like metal for weapons. As I recall I tried buying metal off their exchange, and had to wait several days to find out that I was outbid; very annoying. Sales on the exchange should be instantaneous, like GW2 and STO. Also, I hate their crafting discipline groupings. Seems like a needless complication. For example, weaponsmithing is under one branch, and mining (needed to farm weapons materials) is under another. How silly is that? GW2 does crafting perfectly. You can sally forth and farm crafting resources to your heart's content, and make up for any shortfalls on the exchange (though you will of course pay premium prices for high demand resources).
Anyway, I've read several people say that LOTRO was great when it started out, but has gone increasingly down hill since the Moria expansion (which many consider their best expansion). One person called Helm's Deep a glorified quest pack.