I would say that offline PMs, in my opinion, are not the issue. Personally, I have them turned off as it would take me almost all of my online time to catch-up and follow-up on them. The issue for me is just pure volume but I also understand that comes with the territory, you just won't see me advocating for more ways to become even more accessible than I already am. I seriously do not go 1 minute without a pm if I have my tag on. With it off, I may occasionally get to 3 minutes without one. My usual pm volume received probably averages 5 a minute, yes a minute, back to back. These range from hi and people looking for casual convo (which even my closest friends will tell you is impossible when I am on my staff account) to requests for dolls/statues, events, auctions, hiring, reports on other players, etc. Honestly, players pming me for general help or questions is probably 5% of my pm volume.
I also attempt to respond to all pms; however, depending on volume I have gotten to the point where I may not reply to just a hello. For goodness sakes, do not ask to ask a question or pm just to say you have a question...JUST ASK. Before I was staff I never understood why some admins put in their status ask your question in ONE PM lol, now it is clear as day why they do or it just multiplies unnecessary pms
Insider tip, this activity annoys staff
I also feel very strongly that any member of the PR team should NEVER do pms from friends only or turn off pms while on tag so you will never see me do that as it defeats our purpose, in my opinion.
Anyway...y'all have heard my opinion and reasons why I am not a fan of the idea; however, looking at it from a player perspective, I can totally see why you would want it. Let's see what other staff and players say on the matter