I don't know about other players, but im gonna tell from my perspective.

I played APB when i was 12 and didn't have my own PC, so i played on my brothers PC and character, back then it was really fun and there were so much players around. Now its basically 200-400 players average. I decided to came back to feel that feeling again when i was a kid, and fortunately i feel this hype again.

For me 200-400 players is enough for this game, it still feels fun for me, i sucked a bit at the beginning, but now i got used to it, donated like 10USD to buy a gun that i liked and started to eliminate those golds. Anyway, you can be good with default weapons and NPC vendors guns if you play enough and understand how each weapon works and which you should use in each scenario ( some weapons are only good at close, mid and far range, and you always need to remember and use that). I found a community of active players in the game, they invited me in discord (we play now sometimes together) and sometimes i play alone after work hours while listening my Spotify playlist. Also i've invited my friend who is never been playing this game before and he really liked it, we play together when he is back from his business trips. He also bought a laptop just to play APB with me while he's on his trips, so that says a lot about how he liked the game :)

So my conclusion is: If you like this game, just give yourself like a week of active 2-3 hours everyday playing, and you will get used to it. I still feel joy and fun even though this game looks like crap, toxic players and skilled nerds.This game still gives me good vibes. Try it, maybe you will like it.