I, myself, am a fan of 1.8 pvp. I dislike 1.9 pvp simply for the fact that it completely disheveled my gameplay to the point where I feel like a minecraft noob again. I, like many, would be forced to retire old tricks, tactics, and tips of 1.8 pvp, and that is just depressing. Especially to those like me who have been playing since late 1.5. Imagine you are really good at a game like csgo, pubg, terraria, pyre, etc., and one day, BOOM, new update that completely destroys your style of play. How do you feel? Now apply that to 1.8 players. I don't mean to hate too much on companies, but I personally believe that Microsoft has just gotten their hands on another game, but the only thing that will happen in the end is bitter ruin.
Now, back to the original topic:
I have a high doubt that, despite further updates that Microsoft decides to create and release, that most severs will just accept 1.9 pvp. After all, most of the PvP community is made up of 1.8 players, and servers really can't take that kind of risk. Small servers of about 1K people may be able to get away with it without angering too many people, but larger servers such as Cubecraft, Mineplex, Hypixel, etc. really just can't. I would expect that servers of that size would lose approximately a little more than half of the players. With players goes money, and without money, servers shut down. Let's say that every server converts to 1.13 when it is released. What do you think would happen?
I think the hate on Microsoft's updates would bolster, and at one point, Microsoft would lose so much money, they might re-add some 1.8 features. This may seem like I've taken it too far, but this is just what I believe.
Thanks for readin'