Is this game really dead?

I believe it's going through a phase of "immaturity".

Back in 2009, around the time I started playing, it was mostly teens and adults playing because it was seen as an adult game. That's why you had amazing map makers and builders and redstone geniuses; they were taking/had taken math and design college courses before so this was easy for them. Then when Youtube became a platform, it was the young adults who had grown out of their angst-y low self esteem selves and had become vibrant extroverts who knew how to record and could afford a lot of material. Those who had the skills flourished, and they made servers and maps and videos, and it prospered. But, soon their adult lives hit them, and they became bothered and bored, so they left. Right now, too many people are too immature and unskilled to keep up the creation, and those who are have reached a stage where they're busy working, leaving no one left for creation.

I do think over time this will change. As someone who stuck with this game for 7 years, this isn't going to die.... yet. It's really close though I'll say that. We just need a "savior" to be good at everything. Nothing too hard.