planning on returning to OSI after 20 years. I’m in the UK, so would join Europa. However, from what I’m reading online all servers but Atlantic are pretty much “dead”, is that right?
Most servers always have some activity, just not as much in the past. When I came back, I looked at Atlantic for the reasons you mentioned, but came back to my home shard, because I wasn't going to spend the money to transfer all of my characters and their bank boxes, and my account was a few months shy of 14 active years (so no shard transfer shields just yet).
I'm glad I picked staying on LS - I was able to get a prime housing spot in Zento that my kids love. I'm still trying to convince them to move to a small keep spot I found that has nothing in it, but I get why they want Zento, so I've given up on a massive customization plot.
Vendor Search is something that has made smaller population shards much easier to live on.