where have you read the very bad reviews from? I know a handful of people who have elite and it does exactly what it promises. Yes it's expensive but you pay to be able to stay in Thailand without having to deal with immigration. I don't understand why you think it should be closed down?
it's true. Many people who have had Ed visas now are being rejected from elite visa approval, despite being told before it was ok to have an ed visa as long as it's legit.
getting citizenship is hard in almost any country and there are very good reasons for it. The Thais want to protect their own people and there's nothing unfair about it and makes 💯 sense. Almost all other countries in Asia don't even offer retirement visas or any other long term visas for foreigners.