Originally Posted by
The Madgod
If you want the world to be "full" in your sense, it would require more people. However whenever I'm out and about I see people. People hang out in the halfhill market. I see people running around questing or doing their dailies, moreso than I see people just sitting around two moons doing nothing. I'd say that's a good enough reason to say that the world's full. There are way more people out in the world than in the city.
What you're asking isn't for the world to be larger. You want people to be more wary and in danger. In reality, all hubs have a flight path, so really your point is fairly moot, since you can go the majority of your journey and be completely safe from ganking and the like. On top of that, flying allows for the multi-tiered zone mapping that Blizzard has used, which allows for parts of the world to be mainly for endgame players, while still allowing the zone to be used for leveling as well. Sure, you can use taxis to the same effect, but those are boring. That's why we got flying mounts in the first place... because players like to have control. And if you can't see interesting scenery when in the air, you'd do better to get a better video card or fly lower, than try and get flying mounts removed... there's plenty of beautiful scenery you can see from the skies. If you choose to ignore it, that's your business. I don't, though.
By the way, you see traveling vendors just fine from the sky, you just can't be flying near the height cap. You can absolutely help others and make new friends while still having your flying mount. Ultimately, this is obviously your opinion, and if they really lower your enjoyment of the game (they certainly don't for me. They add to it.), then you can just take them off your hotbar and only use them when you need to. Nobody's stopping you.