@Ghost
Was confused to why you said "none of this really matters" but then turn around and say it's because of the economy.
More population would mean more people farming, more access to parties, more shops in marketplace, as well as even shops selling CS items, because of there was more people doing more activities, their own CS points could run low and they'd have to resort to buying CS items from shop, depending on how much time they actually spend online. There are some people who can't afk on the game all day to get points. What i'm trying to say is that there's no economy because there's very few players.
Honestly the marketplace could actually be worse then it already is really. I vend all the time and actually make pretty good money, but it all depends on what you're trying to sell. I mainly farm SLs, and OJs, and can make gems in a few hours just from that. I can see how the perm economy would suck right now, because DDM is useless now, DKL still needs the drops to be fixed, thus is useless, and tower is still horrible with the drop rate, thus no one is going to want to make perms.
Also with the thing about people who are capped and don't need gear making it so they don't run SL, isn't complete true. I guess it also depends on who you surround yourself with, and what they do. I've been able to do SL runs (thought alot of the time I dont need gear) and farm simply for guild and/or profit for myself.
Anyway I feel like i'm starting to ramble here, but my point in all of this is, is if the population increased, so would everything else, thus I like Zeph's ideas, especially doing the events that reach out to social media. I'd totally make a core related video, though my editing skills arnt the greatest c: would still be fun.