Empty clockworks?

Dont play all that often, used to play a lot last year but then started to play WOW again.
Been dropping by once or twice a week(during wow maint and ocasionally for a break), notice that there is barely anyone in the clockworks.
Old days youd go down and if you wanted to run solo you had to lock group, now when you leave group open to people joining you may aswell of locked it.
1 out of maybe 20 runs(tier 2) ill get someone join the group randomly.
Usually just log on, use mist and thats it.(T2 IMF and JK runs)
Always a ton of people in havens, just not in T2 clockworks.
Has SK died that much, it cant be that everyone is t3 now, i still see the ton of beggars in haven, and all the undergeared people.
Maybe its different for T3, but since im playing irregularly im not really going to be wasting cash on weap slots that ill get 10 or so days play on to be more versatile on vana runs.
Just curious

Ok, i wasnt too sure... i did a few mission myself and they seemed a little lame.
But i spose you get a symbol near your name to show your better then player B, so ofc itll be popular.
There has to be more to it then that tho, isnt there some DLC levels or such that you can pay for. As im guessing alot of players are still free it shouldnt account for too many people disapearing.
As for the rewards for the missions, they seem to be more negative then positive in my opinion.
The trap a lot of new players fall for is spending the cash(which when your new is hard to get without reading or having the skills to play without revives) on items that do not upgrade to a full 5stars.
As far as im concerned, those weapons shouldnt even be in the game.
If the missions actually offered any advice how to play better, then theyd actually be useful.

There are boss strata missions. People just run them over and over again, rather than having to go through several depths before they get to the boss strata.
It's the missions. They destroyed the idea of having an arcade.