We reached the point where it was too popular for its own good when konami dropped a turd on peppy's desk. He would have been satisfied with the playerbase being smaller and regular like it was back then because he was still getting enough money to make it worthwhile as a business venture but without the bullshit that comes with growing: remember, Peppy is ONE man, not a corporation. More work for him comes as osu! grows, and just because he's getting more money, doesn't mean he needs or wants it, he doesn't have shareholders that need to have their scrotums massaged constantly by seeing their stock value rise.
i'm sure peppy, as he is right now as a person, would not be willing to sell osu! to a corporate entity, but if the pressure builds enough from the growth of the game, and said corporation has more capital and manpower with which to run the game, he may be a very different person and more willing to cave to a large sum of money so he can just hand it off and live happily without it.
I believe osu! would take a sharp turn if this happened, most likely for the worst.
My personal hope is that this doesn't happen, and Peppy continues down the path he is now, fixing problems that have been there from the beginning very recently it seems, it really feels to me like hes preparing to make the game open source, which would be an amazing outcome.
Peppy, is it true? Is this your master plan?