The problem is that Spiral Knights is exactly what it used to be. The changes that have happened are rarely large enough to keep playing around much longer than they're already staying.

First off, no to stopping promotions. Promotions are what people complain about because they're there. If we had no box cosmetics we would have a long stretch of simply nothing happening.
Getting rid of boxes makes the lack of content the complaint rather than the excess of promotional items. Same people will be complaining either way so it's not a bad choice to keep having a product to sell instead of having a game that's making nothing.

Second, yes. More new features, levels, weapons, etc. is wanted in an MMO - big surprise. However that takes time, and Three Rings is a small company in the first place. Simply stating "we want more" at this point is well known and voiced - being specific in what "more" is at this point is more helpful. Example is making a free or craftable version of the Overcharged Mixmaster, a new level in the core that's a giant swarm arena, etc.

Third, yes. Merchandise would work wonders with this game - especially since its cute art style would be welcome in any environment! Have a stuffed snarbolax on your bed to sleep with or have a model azure knight on your desk at work.

Fourth and lastly, sure. Again, minigames take a lot of time to create, balance, etc, however they act as a great way to break up the action or try something new. Personally I've suggested a sort of monster mount minigame, but I'm sure timed team puzzles would also be a great minigame as well!

"1. Stop all of the promotions. Look at your update logs. When people think of "updates", they think of new, exciting features. Not promotions that they've all seen before."

Well, not really. You generalize by saying "people" when this is mostly untrue, and I'm going to generalize here as well: when people think of "updates", they will most likely think of bug fixes, quick-fixes, or small balance changes to keep up with player belief at that moment. At least, those who have played MMOs in the past and those who have gaming experience beyond tablet games will think that. Not only that, but promotions are not the problem here. The problem is how badly these promotions are implemented. Three Rings could actually do a lot of things to make these promotions more valuable and interesting, and make a lot of people happy without requiring a lot of effort, they just aren't doing that. So instead of having new, fun, and cool costumes and reskins to look forward to, we instead have metaphorical placebos to make things look better than they are, and people are just catching on. But don't get me wrong here, I actually like all of these promotions even though I can't enjoy them because I don't have the money in-game to take advantage of them, nor will I put money in to the game until they do something about how horrible the boxes are currently. The fact that they're giving content to us is enough to show that they care (even if they are just trying to milk the playerbase), it would just be nice to see something different done rather than the generic "here's a weekly event, buy the boxes from the supply depot". It's also some great filler, because as far as I know, we have nothing to look forward to right now except for more Vanguard missions I guess? But that's getting in to new content and I'll put my thoughts on that below.

2. Have more new content. People want new features, such as new levels or weapons and armor. They keep the game interesting. If you're going to sell something, sell new cool items that actually benefit them in-game.

Well, yes, of course new content is always good. But Three Rings is a small team and content takes a very long time to produce. It's not like they can just release a bomber update tomorrow or drop Tier 4 a week after announcing it, these things take time and like it has already been said, Three Rings is a small team. Sure, Three Rings could throw a bunch of random stuff together and drop it in to the game, but that's just not how it works (in fact, they did this with the gunner update armors, and you can see the responses for that in the Testing Feedback subforum). This game is actually extremely diverse in its items, almost all of them are very unique and exceptionally interesting in one way or another. This makes it hard to just "add content" because of how it affects already-existing content. Could you really, really think of some stuff that not only fits in to the spectrum of the game, but is balanced, synergizes with already-existing content, adds something completely new to the table, and positively affects already-existing mechanics? Of course you could, but now ask yourself, will that stuff please everyone, will it be profitable, and how much of an impact will it have on the game until the next new thing is released? Adding new content is gambling and with how small the dev team is for Spiral Knights, big gambling isn't really something they can actively do. I'm glad when they add new content, and I wish they could add more, but when you're put in Three Rings' shoes your options are so much less than you actually think. To give an example here: Shard bombs. They're pretty horrible, everyone and their mother knows it, I'm sure Three Rings probably knows it, it's just a known thing. Now how can you balance those? There's lots of suggestions for it but really there's not much you can do to Shard bombs without completely changing them, or without making them unbalanced (not that they're balanced at all right now). Now think of Tortofists, they're like a replacement Shard bomb. They do what Shard bombs should probably do, but they also add new and exciting content to the game while retaining balance and synergizing with already-present mechanics. In this situation, adding Tortofists is the good idea, completely changing Shard bombs is the bad idea, and you can see which is currently in the game. (I seriously can't explain this, I might just delete my response lol)

3. Merchandise. There are TONS of devoted fans of the game that would actually buy real life items over digital crap. Sell things like toy weapons, shirts, posters or something like that.

Yes! We've discussed this in the past and I'm still sad we don't have it! All I want in my life is a little wolver or Snarbolax plushie to cuddle to sleep at night (yeah, I just went there).

4. Have more minigames. Currently, there are two minigames in Spiral Knights: 1. Lockdown, and 2. Blast Network(Bomberman). More minigames would add that much-needed variety to the game that keeps people wanting to play it more.

Yeah, I'll +1 this.

1. Promotions shouldn't stop. What should stop is creating items that offer new gameplay and putting them in pay to gamble boxes. That being said I would also like to see weekly updates of any kind whether it be promos, events, boxes, content, or (what I really want) small bug patches.

2. They tried new content with the GU. The problem is that the armors were poorly received, largely due to the fact that the Chaos set has dominated the meta. With the only set on par with it being the supremely difficult to get Black Kat set. I would like to see some balance be brought back that way the new stuff COULD stand out. We also have the Brandish problem where it too has dominated the sword metagame. Guns offer players more variety since they are all more or less on par with each other (Catalyzers need some work though). Bomb metagame is centered more on what bombs don't disrupt parties and are limited to DBB, Haze, and DR.

3. Merchandise. We aren't a huge community and likely SK could benefit more from some advertisement first, then maybe the merchandise.

4. They have been working on a IOS game which could be considered a minigame. Problem is that it has no effect on your main game play like the other minigames. I would be for single player and multiplayer minigames as well as revamping the older ones.

You may have mentioned this, but also, LET APPRENTICES HAVE 5* GEAR LIKE THEY USED TO!

apprentices can use 5* gear if they had it before the update.
right now, even if you traded an apprentice a 5* weapon, they won't be able to use it until a certain rank. can't remember the specifics.