And then there is the fact that Nintendo has forced twitch to disallow partnered channels from streaming Project M, in addition to not letting the game be present at larger tournaments like EVO, APEX and Super Smash Con.

Attributing the loss in attendance to Smash 4, which has completely different gameplay and prominent pro players, is simply false.

Not exactly, Your first part of the comment is correct, and i'll say that it definitely has more of an effect than SSB4. That said myself as a player and many others i know in the community that played Project M  moved on to SSBU. It was the same way with SSBB to Project M.

There are still tourneys that have each of the SSB games (excluding brawl), and SSBU and Melee triumph Project M. Just a year ago Project M was about the same in terms of attendance to Melee, now not so much. (Excluding tourneys tht Nintendo has a hand in like Evo/Apex/CEO/etc)

It is so weird to me that as Smash is growing, my desire to play and watch is declining. When Melee and Brawl were priming, there was not a tournament where I was not present or watching. These days, I would rather watch anything over Smash. What has happened to me?

However, I am most proud of being part of and contributing to the growth of the Smash community. I hope it continues this way for many years going forward.

I do dislike custom moves and wish them death but with over 1,500 people attending, I am thinking it is not going anywhere.