To stop playing will just cancel the game.
If you want the game to persist, you should play but just do the stuff you like and skip everything else.
i.e. if you hate chest runs… Dont do them. If you dont like flagging for additional Luck… Dont flag.
Reason:
If you stop playing the game gets just unfunded and canceled.
If you play but only do the stuff you like and not play the stuff you dont like (even if it might give you some extra GS or whatever) They have actually numbers of players playing and will actually shift over to stuff we like than adjusting stuff we dont like in the first place.
You dont like the crafting grind?.. Stop crafting do something else
And yes if that means just login on and having a good time slashing some lvl 59 mobs with friends and enjoy your time then do it, do something else if you dont like it anymore but still like the game. Only stop playing if you could care less if this game exists in a year or not.
AGS just checks numbers in total if they see 90% of players doing zerg runs they will crunch those numbers and shift it to make this time as long as possible. To make you login every day so they can sell you some skinns and stuff.

