SBF, the issue has never ever been are there thousands more active Witnesses in New Zealand than when I was last active. I can agree with you on that and other specifics (as you well know). On numerous posts, I've had to correct you on your interpretations of what I have said. Corrections have the virtue of clarifying reasoning - for which I am appreciative of your questioning. However, I get more than a sneaking suspicion that you are positing a view that I may not fully disagree or fully agree with.
If I thought the "decline" of the witnesses was an open and shut case, I would have said so. My points have been more carefully expressed. The sum of what I have been saying is, on several indicators, growth has, in some cases, slowed down and in others stagnated. None of these specific observations about specific trends in specific locations of the world changes the points you bring to our attention: The number of peak and average publishers worldwide is increasing. A closer look, however, shows a far more varied picture than you either realize and/or acknowledge. A recent poster made a compelling point: The active JW of the 1960s is a different creature than the active JW of the 2010s for a variety of rerasons. The most compelling feedback I get from still-in JWs is the organizational "tolerance" for low reporting hours has increased across the board. I have relatives who breeze through a month or two of auxiliary pioneering. It wasn't just my dear, now-deceased JW mother who often lamented the deplorable attitude of modern-day witnesses (e.g., the obligatory mid-morning sojourn to the nearest McCafe for way longer than 3- to 40 minutes with the cwitnessingh clock still ticking.)
Separately, these are relatively interesting but minor snapshots; collectively they suggest that the Watchtower maintains its active operability through downsizing the requirements. That is very, very different from my arguing for worldwide decline which palpably is not the case.