He's arguing the silent majority is relatively satisfied with the game, and you're arguing the silent majority is not. I mean, I also know a lot of people that enjoy the game, and instead of being vocal and/or expressing their satisfaction, will just quietly continue playing. These things are completely anecdotal. The only actual measure we have is player numbers which, without any other context, indicate a constant playerbase. As you recognized, it could be artifical inflation from chinese players, but that supposition is also based on anecdotal evidence. Based on anyone's best guess, the player base seems relatively stable (and not just constant in number).
This. The staying quiet/fading away goes for both sides of the coin. For the population stats, nobody really knows for sure, we'd need to get the raw data/stats to see whats going on.
One last thing, can we all agree that mods being limited is generally bad and hurts the community?