Transfers are a far too destructive tool to be used casually. They are only legitimized when moving player characters off a realm that is being permanently deleted. In all other contexts transfers destroy realm communities by their effacement of server identity and complete severance of social ties. Realm Connections (Blizzard’s term for a merge) are a much healthier means to address population concerns yet require more work on the developers’ part and also aren’t a paid service.
It’s obvious Blizzard has chosen the less work for more pay option at the cost of a poorer gaming experience for its users. On principle I refuse to transfer any of my toons. I won’t legitimize their flagrant disregard for implementing a tool that should only properly be used as a last resort. If you want to return to the game and want to see changes, I would encourage you do the same. Demand better accountability on Blizzard’s part for maintaining healthy realm communities.
As an aside, I will grant that Blizzard has recently shown some initiative with regard to these issues. They performed some realm connections during the inception of Classic Era and are now in middle of a realm consolidation effort in the progression servers. Blizzard’s intent for these actions seem to be coming from the right place, but the execution needs refinement.
A major area that they are still lacking is COMMUNICATION. We need to know that they are aware and actively working on a solution for what is, without a doubt, one of the largest issues in this game: realm communities.