User retention is the ultimate red herring, though. Sure, if prices rise, some may leave for that. When prices fall, some may leave for that. If prices are fixed, some may leave for that. If users feel it's too hard to move up, they may leave. If they feel it's too hard to stay up, they may leave. If they feel it's not changing fast enough, they may leave. If it changes too much, they may leave. So all you can do is make the game the best and fairest it can be, and hope that the people will enjoy that enough to stay.
It's not too high or too low it's the rate at which they have changed and that nothing has been done to reduce the impact of such a sudden change of environment.
You see red herrings everywhere and that's your ultimate argument that reduces everything into indistinct noise. The truth however is that people feel the current state is problematic enough to complain about prices. Could you say there were threads like this one, complaining because prices were too low, before Utopia came about? Considering that there were more users back then, you may draw your own conclusions about why threads complaining about inflation/deflation, prices etc etc keep coming out now, but didn't back then.
Ultimately you seem to be the one dismissing the problem as a non-issue, while all the open complaining from multiple people in multiple threads points to a widespread disappointment with the current situation.
Look, I bought supporter I may delight myself in starting polls. I think I will enjoy that. And I think I will start with:
a) You believe today's prices are too high
b) You believe today's prices are too low
c) You believe they are about right
d) I couldn't care less about prices, I'm outta here anyways. bye