I found EchelonMC and it is a hand built survival server that is made to last. It is hosted in Canada and the owner Eddy has been building it for about two months with players helping by giving suggestions.
It feels like the opposite of those SMP servers that get messy then die. This one is about long term building and real progression with a strong community vibe. There is no pay to win and they are not planning main world resets. It also is not a copy paste plugin pack server since the systems are custom made for this place.
There is a currency called Echelites that you earn just by playing like mining farming fishing exploring and building. You can spend it on progression and quality of life stuff.
Land claiming is a big deal here with visual borders and chunk settings. It has protection for TNT and creepers plus fire spread control and raid prevention. It also has things like fluid freeze mob spawn control claim decay options claim bundling and per chunk player access so huge builds can stay safe.
There are teams with invites member management shared access and private team chat. You can list public builds so people can visit vote and climb rankings. There are timed graves too so your items are protected with balanced recovery mechanics.
