I don't understand why RP would push people away, it's not like you can't ignore it, or make new chat tabs removing certain chat options. I really miss the marketboard on my old populated server, being able to buy things cheap and I wasn't even putting effort into making gil. On small servers marketboard is controlled by a few players, overpricing everything. Things take forever to sell, so even if you can sell an item for a couple of millions, there's no purpose behind it. Empty areas are kinda depressing too. Fates take too long to complete and are ignored as a method to level up. The only downside I see on Balmung would be the housing situation if you're interesting on it.