Older towns need some support for new, useful content
Anyone notice how no one seems to care about Aht Urhgan Whitegate anymore? Al Zahbi, at least on my server, hasn't had a Besieged in a long time.
Other towns seems to be ghost towns in general, not because of people moving on, but because they lack anything other than a Nomad moogle to help you change your job. Such places like Rabao or Norg need some big event that can only be accessed from that town only that isn't just a quest to get X amount of items for gil or a piece of equipment. I mean something much bigger.