I find it quite silly that if you can get the game back at around circa i4 - that some folks don't want to play it.
Just like with everything else it could be slowly worked up to what we knew in the end at i23 Beta. Many people were doing data capture at that time. So people are saying - I don't want a short trip back in time to try and save the world?
Man, I guess we better not fire up the flux capacitor in the DeLorean.
Well, let's see, state of the game at Issue 3... Kheldians came out in Issue 3, but didn't have a number of very significant issues fixed until Issue 4. Also the majority of my space pirate PB's outfit didn't exist then. That's... less than ideal. Beyond Dark Armor's absurd endurance costs the constant dental drill noise induced headaches when i tried playing it and i actually shelved my Issue 1 Claws/Dark for years because of that. Basically a lot of powersets, game mechanics, and ATs still had significant issues at that time. Setting aside all the costume pieces, powersets and other content that also didn't exist yet.
Still, around Issue 3 i was mostly playing my DM/Regen (thoroughly, awesomely broken), FF/Rad (boring but very effective on teams, excruciatingly slow solo), D3 (decent, but still relatively weak at that point), and an Electric/Electric. i can think of several other combos that were good back then and i would enjoy playing, and the graphics would be a nice bit of nostalgia.
As Arcana pointed out though, the only reason to create an Issue 3 specific server is because you don't have the means to do so with any later versions, so it's Issue 3 forever. Which would be depressing. i certainly wouldn't pay money to play a static game stuck at a point in time with a host of bugged mechanics and balance issues. Not saying you shouldn't but i don't see the appeal. As much as i liked playing CoH i would find perpetual Issue 3 more annoying than fun. If i was going to fire up the flux capacitor it would be to head to the future, not spend my time crouched over the guttering ember of a fixed point in the past.