On Besaid the population has moved around (I miss the nice quite forest where i knew most of the people i would run past)

But I would agree a lot of factors are holding people in UL, The best fix for this is a better party/recruiting system imo.
So we can find people no matter where they are and with airships/cholocobs travel will be much better after 1.19.

But having a market hub will always happen, and it suite the lore for that to be in UL.
So i personally would like that to stay the same.