Going to give my opinion on a few of your guys' suggestions, you don't have to agree with me if you don't want to, just stating my point.
Refineries and Factories are a huge part of the content that was released in v3, if those were to be removed, there wouldn't be as much to do. I understand some might not like them, but the people that do use them a heck a lot I'm sure personally enjoy them as they're a form of selling candy and making good money. Personally, they should stay, and those that don't quite enjoy them, then don't use them, simple.
About the enchanted golden apples, I understand you guys want them to be easier to be obtained, makes sense, but OPBlocks is a Prison server, NOT a Pvp based server. If you want a fair even fight and not lose anything, that's what /duel is for, just be sure to store your valuables before dueling because if you crash you have a slight chance in losing your inventories.
Candy is another content piece of the server, it's been with the server since v1 and is the whole theme of the server. I understand there are "T3 Spammers" but that can be simply fixed with a longer cooldown, making it possible to not be able to use more than a certain amount of candy at one time, or making it so the candy isn't instant and you have to eat it similar to a golden apple. Another solution is to nerf the candy and not make it quite as overpowered.
Overall, those are just the major things I've seen people suggest and just wanted to leave my opinion, apologies if you don't agree with my statement.