I'm a new player, been playing a week.
1) even on the "smallest" server I'm always seeing someone out in the field. Think only the land around ishgard is empty and that is prob cus most mob levels are highter then 50, and there are a ton of aggresive mobs so exploring is a hazard.

2 my guess you truely never did quests in ffxi. That game had tons of pointless quests that had nothing to do with the story. BUT they are part of the lore you learn about the npcs and how their day to day lives pan out. Much like the moss quest in ffxi or the cornette quest.

3 This is a player ran economy. We hand gil around to each other from buying and selling gear to each other. The issue is people only do guildleves so they earn more then they spend. And it don;t get handed around. This is due to peoples need to be rich in a video game.

A lot of people became self sufficant, that way they do not need other players help. This in turn kinda ruins our economy, since we make and repair our own gear and do not buy it.