It's one of those things you notice when you're switching back and forth between GW2 and other games, IMO. Getting used to GW2, then dabbling in TOR for example, took a little getting (re) used to do to the lightning speed of the camera.
Everyone hates the Sylvari, we had a meeting, weren't you there?Although I am a bit confused about other people: I play on Gandara which is listed as having "Very high" population, but I barely ever see anyone, even in The Grove which is considered a major city. Is it just that so few people play Sylvari, or are they all just doing high level PvP and PvE? I remember watching some "Let's play"s for Humans, and the starting zone there seemed to be extremely crowded, with 20+ people participating in Events, while yesterday as Sylvari I participated in 2 events with 3 other people in the first and 1 other in the second.
But really, Lions Arch is the capital with all the portals, so that's the default city to hang in. Divinitys Reach has some good clustering of important stuff, as does Rata Sum, so they have a few also. Queensdale has one of the two most popular champion trains (other being Frostgorge, high level) and is laid out pretty easy, so it's popular.