"I have seen this ^^ too. There is a 70cm machine in my area run by the local EMA and there is one guy who has appointed himself the "repeater police". He thinks he's a permanent net control and can boss everyone around. Now no one uses it because it's easier to move elsewhere than argue."
We just booted as of 1 June our troublemaker, who fits the above description. He would even go as far as telling new hams what their house looked like and what kind of car they had (thanks Google Earth) and creep them out so bad they wouldn't come back. By 2 June repeater usage was up 100%. As of 5 June, now that word has really gotten out, The airwaves are abuzz again.
As for the DStar thing, we operate 2m, 70cm, and 1.2 ghz repeaters, but they see little use. DStar is a strange animal as it seems to flourish and die, and flourish and die. We're at the die phase now, largely due to the DMR phenom taking place.