I do think the idea of retiring layers is actually great and they should try to pursue it, or rather one of the goals of retiring layers - putting people on the same layer during less active times. They should also just let us have a little manual control over what layer we’re in besides using an addon and group invites. Specifically, for this scenario, let’s say you log in during off peak hours and you’re on an empty layer, the game could notify you and ask if you want to switch to a more populated layer, you accept and there you go. Some people want to be on empty layers while on high pop servers and others don’t. Let them choose.
Layering has honestly been great. People want megaservers or that’s the default… We could limit each server and have many smaller servers with no layers, but with character transfers available and just by sheer chance, a server can die. Megaservers prevent that a lot. Instead of being connected through some cross-realm immersion breaking thing where every character name has a -servername tag next to them it’s all just one server. It’s great compared to retail. There’s definitely some drawbacks though.