Check this one, from late 99, showing player numbers online on the shards. Bare in mind this is four years before UO players numbers peaked:
Really shows how empty free shards are in comparison, and proves the thought that the main reason they don't seem 'right' is mostly lack of players, I think. IPY2 is getting 700ish atm, so puts it at the level of the quieter Asian shards in 99 - and even then I'd imagine there's more multi-clienting happening on IPY than on Yamato in 99!
i think i'd call our shard a huge sucess if we averaged 500-750 clients at peak. By removing certain areas of the map like culling the odd town, removing certain champs etc, i think you bring the map size inline with the population we'd expect. IPY didnt feel empty to me, when i played solo, there were almost always people at my favourite spawns.
This is such a good read, I read through the entire thing a few years back, might have to do it again!
Agree with merc too, there's no point having 2k players online if they are spread between about 8 seperate landmasses - think we have taken a brave but correct step to cut down the towns.