The thing that has to be remembered is that because a lot of people register doesn't mean they want to get involved in all this. I saw that firsthand as Pacific Governor when we literally had a revolving door of people coming, saying "Nah, this isn't for me," and leaving.
Merging the MW and the Pac would not alter the identity of either region, although the Pac has certainly been tacking to the right lately. The same can be said of merging the Southeast with the Mideast. Or some such configuration. I thought this was taken into consideration. In the end, we're certainly running out of reasons not to attempt some kind of consolidation. We're to the point where we have to manufacture reasons not to do it, and I suppose there are those eager to do that.
Likely the extremism has made the game inaccessible to some.
Well, most sane leftists last summer, for instance, wanted nothing to do with the Mideast, which seemed on the brink of bringing back blue laws at some point, for goodness sakes.
Is it just me or has the usual one region that plays the role of the "Sick Man of Atlasia" now two?
My opinion carries very little weight here, but that's been the case for a long time and it's now actually three "sick men" out of five.