My biggest issue with the people thinking Snake is gone is that they put so much stock in a statement made towards a question asked about Smash Bros in an MGSV interview.
Kojima is the man who has intentionally done the following:
1. Led people to believe Snake was the protagonist in MGS2 but then (At first) killed him off and had Raiden be the playable character.
2. Created a fake "Moby Dick Studios" and announced the Phantom Pain as a new IP, and had people steam over what it was for many months before actually saying "Nah, it's MGSV."
3. Created a P.T. (Playable teaser) for the Silent Hill game he's making with Guillermo Del Toro. It was announced out of nowhere at Gamescom, released on the PS4 market place, and by sheer dumb luck someone completed it in hours when Kojima intended it for it to take at least a week for people to find out it's a demo for Silent Hills. A demo that has nothing at all to be with Silent Hills besides it demonstrating that Kojima wants to, and I quote, make you "shit your pants."
Why do you insist on putting your trust this man? Why?