I have deactivated my witness node to focus on my career outside of Hive. I was a relatively high ranking witness (top 100 but never top 50) and it didn't sound fair to keep "farming" HIVE without being active in either the community or on development.
I have started witnessing when it was unprofitable (low rank) and I have stopped when it was profitable (high rank, it was making more HP than what the server cost).
I think this is the right thing, witnesses should be active. I will be back, just not right now. I hope that by doing right things Hive gets better and better, even when the right thing is deciding that you need to take a break.