A wipe of the test is inevitable.
As long as they get all systems running, like the AE, auction houses, holiday events, etc. And the code is stable with good admin interface for those that want their own servers and they can get the data out there for us to download and archive it for safe keeping we can then work on getting servers online.
As to buying licenses from ncsoft.....I am loathe to pay them one dime of my cash..but this would be an exception
I will happily leave the game in zombie mode forever unless I can easily implement some ideas I have to tune things up and customize it