Finally managed to log in on Midgard... really should have just gone to bed, but I was curious about the state of the players, so wondered around a bit. While for the most part, there was a lot of activity---it indeed seemed like a lot more idle players than when I got on last night. IDK.. may have just been because I was actively looking for them. But, it seems like there is definitely something there worthy of investigation.

So... yes, doing something about idle characters might be an approach worth looking into. Won't be the solution in itself, but it would be a very good part of the solution overall if SE can find a way to implement it without upsetting their concept of "balance".