I've been wanting to address this issue myself and couldn't have said it better myself. The point of an MMO is to be surrounded by a massive amount of people. We thank Bioware for the consideration in not over populating servers creating a thick layer of lag to swim through but I do agree that the population is spread entirely too thin. No one in my guild talks, I see little more activity in General Chat. And it takes entirely too long to find someone to group with (if not my guildies, we do help eachother as much as possible) for any missions, let alone flashpoints. One thing I terribly miss about The Matrix Online, and Ever Quest is the communities, the fun to be had in the clubs or taverns in major cities, the dueling tournaments held. I honestly believe Star Wars Galaxies survived as long as it did solely because of the community and the relationships built there, the society that was created, as the same could be said for the Matrix. Swtor is an AMAZING MMO and is only getting better and has so much more to offer than the preciously mentioned MMOs, but I do feel the weight of the population/community, socializing aspect dwindling away. Please don't let Swtor die before it has fully matured.
Again, Thank you.