What years are you guys referring to in XI's history? Prior to 2009 it was relatively easy to build or get invited to an XP party at just about every level range. IIRC, it was in 2009 (or close to it) that the lower level areas really started to slow down due to so much of the population being beyond them on classes that interested them and few new players coming in.

I feel like the misery in finding XP parties is over stated and that every area was pretty busy until mid 2008 at the earliest.
The Dunes usually had 5+ parties rolling at a time, Qufim usually had 5, the jungle would have 4 or 5, 3 in the Citadel, the Crawlers Nest would be packed, etc.