Would you fund if they said:"Hey guys we are releasing the level 50 content, but we would like $10.000 first, so start donating guys!" ?

I think if they did that, you'd probably be surprised how quickly $10,000 would be donated and for a short while at least old players would return and sub just to get 50 so it'd be a win win for hcs

As getting dungeon groups can be a real pain in the proverbial my suggestion is that players could mine gems upto glim with random drops from cracked to glim level 1 - cracked, level 16 - cracked/jagged, level 24 - cracked/jagged/flawed, level 32 +fair, level 40 +glimmering(max gem)

With gems being random upto max, some people will grind this for higher levels to try and get glims but at the same times as gems wouldn't be guaranteed glim onyx for example this wouldn't be likely to be abused or replace dungeon runs. It just gives an opportunity for players not able to gather glimmering gems in other ways, a chance to gather them.

I think it would be a good idea because many old players left as eldevin has become stale and not worth playing. I've spoked to a couple who have said if eldevin gets new content then they will return to play it again, hopefully that will make the community grow and more dungeon runs will happen. It's needs new content so I expect a few higher level players might contribute raise funds to get the level 50 content finished, it's certainly worth a try at the very least.