Really??? Come on now....lots of folks have moved on for various reasons. I'm asking for specific examples of folks who have been "driven away" as you have stated.
Hey, do your own research. Put in for some overtime.
Read through Burvol's falling thread, read every post. You'll see some good loggers, people who know their trade, who aren't here any more. The reasons might not jump out at you but, then again, you're not a logger and the reasons might not be clear to you. They might not have made a big deal of it when they left but they were tired of the wannabes and people arguing with their advice. They chose not to make a fuss when they left but in PMs and in personal conversations they were very clear that they'd had enough.
We had a guy on here for awhile, NW Axeman, who was probably one of the best known fallers in the PNW. He's the guy they go to when there's a problem tree or any other tough piece of work. He spent a lot of time helping people on AS and put up with the arguments from people who wouldn't last ten minutes in his line of work. He had enough and withdrew.
Coastalfaller was another good one. He'd offer his opinions on different situations and those of us who know logging would listen. Those who didn't know logging would question his advice and deride his knowledge. He left, too.
There are others who just quietly gave up on this place and don't post any more. That's a loss to AS.