This is a difficult truth for NEM. A huge investment of ETH 190,000 with the current price is very low, and it is not able to maintain a large machine that can overcome a long winter like an ice age. NEM was right when it cut 25% of its staff, which would reduce the cost of maintaining the company.
That's the company's fault. Look at binance and anyother ico that can generate profit from the platforms. NEM was creating a big mistake because they are not putting the main concern to the question how they can create such a useful application or platforms that can actively generate revenue to cover the operational of the platform.
I agree with your point. NEM did a mistake, they could spread the platforms with valuable products. At this moment, most of the legal crypto projects are suffering, not only NEM but still, NEM is a very popular coin and their trading volume also high! Then why they haven't made something catchy for their community/project. I feel sorry for the NEM, hope everything will be alright again!