It's the music rights that are an issue. In the early 80's they started using pop songs a lot more and the rights to rebroadcast that music is prohibitively expensive. I keep hoping that issue will be worked out one of these days so we can see the last 8 years or so.
I think Ryan's hope is very slow paced and that's why a lot of people find it boring. I always think of RH when people start saying they want more family scenes. RH was had such a strong family core, at least in the beginning. It's truly a character driven show. I wish there were room for another soap like it today, but I just don't see it. People expect a faster pace and more outrageous drama than shows like RH have. I find it so endearing because on RH a divorce was such a huge , scandalous thing and people actually believe you should be married forever. Now most main characters have been married 7 or 8 times, so things like affairs and divorce really don't create all that much drama.