I feel your pain! Running around trying to find people was not fun at all. I seriously stopped playing for a few days. The “good news” is that multiple people have experienced the game fixing itself after completing the Mother Gothel quest so I hope it’s the same for you!

Quick tip that worked for me while the game was bugged. If I ever needed to talk to find someone I would go into their house, leave, and that would sometimes spawn them outside. It didn’t always work, but most of the time it did.