A reset is necessary to release some of the long overdue system improvements, and to give everyone a fresh start after so many economic screw ups we've had in the past (and present
).
The term "New Era" was coined when promises of a new gmap, new jobs, etc came with the development. A reset is a big thing for players, and dev teams usually feel like they have to make a big deal out of it. Just about everything that could be released on the main server was when it was ready, unfortunately though, most of the new systems are designed around things that cannot be moved.
You have to remember that we are all volunteers, and may not work as fast as you would like us to, but everything we do on the dev server is to improve Era as a whole. I think it's important that everyone knows that Era Dev is just a place for us to work without screwing everything up on the main server, and is not some foreign server that will replace the Era you've enjoyed for so long.