Highlanders look awesome in later armor, especially in tank armor and stuff. Most early gear just looks bad no matter what race you are.

I wouldn't use the starting cities and zones as a metric of how crowded a server is. Most players on the newer servers probably have housing and are spending most of their time there. Many people will not normally communicate outside of their Linkshells or Free Companies, either. I dunno how else to tell how populated a server is other than spending a week or so in it and getting a feel for how many people are in the mid to high level areas.