Couldn't agree more. There are tonnes of known bugs and exploits within the game which need to be fixed and yes it needs to be more gamer friendly with some new and old features, weapons etc. The game itself maybe dying but there would still be servers running even when the game comes to a full stop, so there would still be a few here and there who would continue to play the game.
An old classic now that it is does need a makeover in order to spare it from death but will SD deliver? Chances are 50/50. The lag issue which players come against has been outlined and needs to be sorted out however its not a game issue its to do with the server's location, latitude and the players internet.

As seen with ETQW and Wolf 09 which were complete failures, hopefully if SD does go ahead with this then I hope that ET2 wouldn't be anything like them.