Long story short is they need to stop making new servers and try to get new players on old ones. I would say if they stopped right now and tried to cut down from 500+ servers to maybe 100+ with merging. Then add the lowest populated servers to the recommended severs for new players. Also adding in a non-paying intensive event for new players to join older servers.

I hope eventually they sell off the title to a company that cares once profits die down. The game has an amazing concept to it