I used to play in Lordaeron, but I moved to icecrown due to the lack o pvp in Lordaeron. It was undoubtedly a really good decision. I don't like the pay to win philosophy of Icecrown, but at least I can enjoy the game here.
In my opinion Lordaeron has too many nonsense features. Just make a 1x realm with no shop, enable RDF, and let raids and dungeons be as they are supposed to be, and I think population would be much higher.
This realm is only enjoyable for people who can play wow during 12 hours a day, but guess what, most of people don't have that time. If I have one hour to play wow, I can't afford being 20 minutes in the queue for a bg or forming a group for doing some pve... Let's not talk about finding an arena partner and doing some games...
Just my opinion, and I know a lot of people who left lordaeron because of similar reasons.