Classic has a small furniture or hat update every week, which is like the servers fuel, it keeps the players on. Classic's holidays are like the 'main' events on the server, which is what players look forward too.
Classic is pretty much like a collecting game in my opinion, with no real incentive to do other things like sparring or pk'ing, as there are no rewards for doing so, like other servers.
Yeah, Nexus' are always fun, but there is no real sense of adventure of Classic anymore. When I was a new, there was so much to explore and do, but once you do everything, it gets pretty boring. I mean, yes it is more of a social game, or in some younger kids eyes, a dating game, but there still needs to be some sort of adventure in the game to get a wider range of players playing the game. I just wish we had small updates like that maze in Rufus' house.