its not a contradiction, pal
if you're in korthia, where people are usually just minding their business doing dailies, you very rarely (90% illidan players) see players from other realms.
There's no "illusion of population" from people on other servers, there aint the whole "inflated numbers cus crz" that the idiot I was talking to was referring to.
https://www.engadget.com/2012-09-24-...alm-zones.html
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Cross-realm_zones
i.e cross realm zones aren't applicable to max level zones, unless ofc you're grouped with someone and exist on their realm