Hey Fog, ryan__ from the irc earlier today.
1. I believe DM servers use the snowball effect a lot - once one or two people join and others see, they'll join too. The inherent problem here is getting said one or two people to join because usually it takes a little bit of time and some people don't have incentive to do such things. I'm in NY and if I could DM there all day that'd be awesome, but no one joins. Saying that, I am also guilty of not joining the NY server when it has no people; I hope this thread brings some more people in the future to the coast servers.
2. If you allow DH, you won't have scouts on DM servers anymore. Fuck that weapon. However, allowing snipers on the #2 servers which I usually do see populated (but if not then whatever) is great. No one can really practice that outside of pugs and matches - sniping in pubs just isn't the same.