So as I’m having fun leveling up some alts (and also dabbling in some TBC Anniversary) I’ve realized that a lot of my time questing and exploring in Azeroth has been spent alone. Obviously capital cities in DF and Midnight are bustling with activity but there’s something to be said for how in Classic/TBC there’s just seemingly always one or two people nearby working on the same quest you are which makes the game feel alive.
That being said… On higher population servers like Stormrage and Illidan are there more people questing and exploring older starter zones etc? If so it might be worth it to me to spend the money to transfer my alts. Crafting, while a fun side gig, is not a major priority to me.
Ummm. What is worth what to you is a question only you can answer. But knowing what the normal state or average or usual thing is is a matter of experience. So it’s kinda hard to answer.
Take into account that levelling and max level are entirely different beasts. And remember that you will spend a lot more time at max level than you will levelling.
Also remember that summer is the low-activity season in WoW, so what you see now is the low point.
You will find more populated zones, both in older and in current zones, on the biggest realms. Blizzard do even out the zone population through coalescences - mixing characters from multiple realms in the zones - but the biggest realms still make the most densely populated zones.
What I would suggest is try it for an alt or two. Certainly you should try it before you spend money. Levelling is crazy fast now. Illidan is a Horde realm; Stormrage is an Alliance realm. Make an alt of the appropriate faction on either one, and level it there.
The Warband Bank (Warbank) has removed the problems of having alts on different realms. You can drop gold into your Warbank and have a new alt pick it up on a different realm. You can drop useful items in there, and have your alt pick those up too. Put a thousand gold and some bags into your Warbank and your alt is good to go immediately.
Sorry, “worth it” is the wrong angle - monetary value isn’t the primary concern. What I meant was more so questioning whether non-current-expansion-pack areas on full realms are actually more populated/busy than say low-pop realms.
But you’re right, ultimately I can just answer this myself. Later tonight I’ll make an alt on a full server and go explore various starter zones and see what the vibe is like.
I can say though that when I leveled my dwarf hunter in Dun Morogh on Nesingwary I could go hours and hours without seeing another player. 
Previous expansion zones are pretty empty on all realms.
There are severeal reasons for this in modern Retail that did not apply historically, or in Classic:
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At level 10, every character has a choice of 10 expansions to level in. So the population is distributed between 10 completely different “worlds”. A level 10 who goes to Borasn Tundra (Wrath) will never meet a level 10 who goes to Waking Shores (Dragonflight). This means people are much more scattered.
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Everybody is split between Warmode Off and On. Most people choose Warmode Off, but it is still another split spreding people out.
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Scaling means you can pretty much go to any zone you choose in the expansion you select. Traditionally, when you started Outland, you had to go to Hellfire first, and that funnelled people into one concentrated area. Now when you hit level 10, you can start in Nagrand instead if you prefer.
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Levelling is FAST 
so people spend much less time in levelling zones. The days of settling into Stranglethorn for a solid week of levelling are long gone. You barely see the place before you leave.
Where it makes more of a difference is at max level. Because there is a concentration of level 90s doing World Quests and Events, you will see many more people in the world than you did while levelling.
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