In crafting, there is no decay, only consumption of stacks of ingredients just the same as ammo. Yet there are many crafters, many profiting, many losing, all apparently logging in for free.
In melee there is 100% decay. There are many users of melee, some profting and some losing, apparently paying an awfull lot for their login time yet somehow still seeing a return.
in between theres a gamut of decay costs, some profit, some dont, some deposit nothing, others deposit thousands, all apparently paying for MAs bills and profit.
conclusion. decay means sweet fa.
MA make their money and are happy bunnies, the servers are up and fun is had so we the punters are happy too. someone likes to point out you compete against the other players. i say you compete against yourself, put some in, take some out, find what works for you today and be ready to change. decay is a smokescreen, ignore it, at best it means you reduce costs, at worst it fixates you on unprofitable stratagies in the blind faith that low decay = profit. one hof can swing a profit when using blades at lvl20, while 500ped runs can see a 40-50% loss using 10/10 weapon and no armour.
MA make their money by taking our deposits, simple.