So this is the main one. Developers as Admins. From the Tribe disbanding (my conspiracy meter says it was because they were MM and you guys are MM and they have remade in some fashion - those guys were too dedicated), to quite a bit of other 'noise' going on about developer interaction... please post, or internally create, an Admin ruleset, and abide by some strict rules you place on yourselves for messing with the game. Because you are a smaller group, it is easy to discard the efforts of your players when for you it is a simple command to do anything in the game. I see this quite a bit these days with Admin run servers on Arma3, Rust, Minecraft and other individually hosted server games. The notoriety, the attention, it is hard to put aside as you build a game, and so you likely find yourself more involved with players because you are seeking out some unconscious need to use your admin abilities.
Yes, this is pretty much a helpless request that while you dev and Admin at the same time, that you restrict yourselves from interfering with the game. I have seen dev interference split the community of other games and it seems it may have happened here already. So for the sake of all fledgling pilgrims, please come up with something you guys will stand behind to keep from favoring players, interfering with politics, imposing in-game prejudice based on forum activity, gifting to certain players, and so on. I imagine it would be the hardest thing to keep in check, and even harder for the players to know any difference. It is a hidden threat, a hidden reduction in potential, a hidden reduction in the meaning of all the effort everyone puts in, if it becomes apparent that admins can do whatever they want instantly. As good as any in-game system, please create a real-life system on how you all will handle interacting with the game world and players.