Because they want features to roleplay with, there's currently nothing to do in the server in terms of being a civilian.
Way to earn money is drugs which bring small profit, issue submitted long ago.
It's a chain reaction, people lost motivation to play because of lack of features / zero updates since RS5.2, and they get demotivated more when it becomes delayed.
Once that specific group stops playing in the server, others won't come as well because they won't play a server with 10 players as it's usually boring.
Then us, in the Law Enforcement also don't feel like coming because then we have nothing to do if there's nothing to investigate (FBI) and no criminals / citizens to interact with.
People await RS5.2 because it was advertised a lot and it got people excited with all the amazing features it brings, it's literally gonna build up the server from an empty desert to a whole city.
They'll rather wait until it builds than play in the desert.