Minecraft is begining to get like this, because there are two kinds of servers.
1. A nice server with a decent OP, but is ran from a laptop for two hours a day
2. An insanely powerful dedicated server with a player base of 200, but harsh, sometimes even abusive OP control freaks, a so called "Economy" that consists entirely of fixed prices, and a community that just turns the game into "Like single player, but other massive structures pop up randomly"
I am thinking of starting a server for just me and my RL friends, which would end up falling into the first category, but with 8GB RAM and Quad Core instead of a barely functional laptop.