Look, Trade Route being down is intensely frustrating for me too; I made a mid-size (~$500) order on the 8th and hadn't received confirmation it shipped yet. But all the shrill shrieking about exit scamming doesn't make sense from my perspective. Why would the administrators have their Reddit representative provide a story about bug fixes and server migration if they were just going to vanish into the night? It's not like placating everyone's concerns would help them get away any less unscathed; none of us know who these people are to begin with, so it's not as if they are buying extra time to fly to Belize with everyone's coin by announcing such a thing. It seems much more probable to me that they are focused on fixing whatever issues there have been with the code, as well as the likely massive undertaking of transferring all that data, than it would be them ripping all of us off.
Of course, nobody said drug fiends were patient, and I have always hated the "waiting game" too. It just doesn't seem like the paranoid speculation helps any of us. There is currently zero information to show they ripped us off, and on the contrary, their seemingly attentive CS to this point coupled with the explanation their spokesperson gave yesterday point in the other direction. Plus we all know they stand to make way more money keeping the site running, and unless this is something along the lines of a Law Enforcement action I'm going to guess they will be back as soon as they're able. But we're all in the same boat I suppose, and I have no exclusive information one way or another... it just wouldn't make sense to announce what they did and have it be a cover for a scam. Why not just pull the plug and vanish if that were the case?
Just trying to call for a bit of calm, see how this develops for a little while. If they haven't provided an update for a couple days, maybe your spastic flailing would be warranted at that point. Until then, chill the fuck out.
I disagree with your first premise; delaying tactics would be useful in tying up loose ends, but you are certainly correct in that onion sites are more prone to downtime for obvious reasons. As for the profitability, that is true, but we don't know the specifics of their situation, so they could be feeling heat and decide enough is enough. Golden eggs are no good in jail. But I like at least a reasoned consideration instead of other types of speculation, this sub needs more of this