Reopen Bamung, it is 7:30 AM for crying out loud

[Chihaya]

Balmung is too populated, it is locked as it should be.

as someone who has worked with gaming servers on MMO's

Then you should also know leaving server population unchecked - having some server with extremely high populations and some servers with extremely low populations does not work very well either. High population puts heavy strains on the servers - as looking at launch day issues with many big name MMOs, unable to connect - or massive lag/disconnects during game play because the server just cannot handle it. Some companies choose to put log-in queues to alleviate this problem - ArchAge where you wait over 2hrs to log on. As Balmung already have log in queues every night as well as pretty much majority of the day during weekends - I do not want to see an increase to this.

EDIT: Using your subscription as a threat is piss poor attitude. All the developers hate it when certain players are using the "I'm paying you money so do what I want" attitude. They also have other customers to think about, not just you. Think of your problem this way - do they just want to please the hundred(?) of players wish to join an overcrowded server or please the tens of thousands of player already on the server with smoother game play.

[kyuven]

Think of your problem this way - do they just want to please the hundred(?) of players wish to join an overcrowded server or please the tens of thousands of player already on the server with smoother game play.

This is also the Japanese way of looking at things and probably why they haven't had free transfers off balmung yet, even though at this equivalent time in the game's life, WoW did (though again, they had the enormous budget to allow it and more than two hyper congested servers to deal with). Of course counter THAT with the fact that a lot of financial flop games like SWTOR did server MERGERS at this same point...well, life is complicated.
While yes, the best option would be to allow transfers off servers that are locked, it wouldn't necessarily make the problem go away.
Being on a smaller server is a unique experience. I get to sit back and watch as people try to cram into the FFXIV equivalent of Times' Square on New Years and just laugh.