The amount of players on the server effects everyone.

It affects all playeres in direct ways, such as finding a party, and also in indirect ways, such as populating the Wards with items you want, or people to buy the items you want to sell. Eventually, the amount of players paying subscriptions will drastically affect the longevity of the game and the resources available for updates and expansions.

So if you think other people's gripes don't effect you, you are simply wrong. This particular issue causes people to not play FFXIV. That fact is not at all debatable.

Rampant PL'ng (regular PL and AFK PL) is already affecting the overall population of the game. We can debate the degree to which this is true, but not the fact that it is true.

This argument that "PL does not affect me" has no realistic basis.