Blizzard never addressed Realm Populations until like Cataclysm. I remember the weekly ICC 25m GDKP PuG I ran with was 10/12 HMs, which was better than a lot of servers during Tier 10. It took them all of TBC and Wrath before they finally dealt with dead servers. So they arent exactly fast when it comes to this sort of thing.
As long as there are layers.. I mean.. I means it has almost several server populations layered on top of them.. its almost like... there are still people. But I get it, you said you were looking for a tank for 5 minutes and you being you and not getting it instantly means the server is dead as fuck. I get it.
if you took the transfer to one of the empty realms you basically got gnomed. There will not come a solution there is a reason most people just stick with the queues. Even now my realm still has queues but taking the free transfer is just a major scamaz. Blizzard wont act on those realms and they will be left out to die. if you took the free transfer my only advice would be to start over on a high pop realm.
I must say I regret rolling on a Medium to Low population realm. No queue times but mildly active. And I reeeaaalllllly don't want to roll on a High population server and level again.
Dream on retail'rs!