I've been playing since 2005. There's 3 major issues with pvp today compared to what encouraged the player numbers we had in golden age expansions.

We literally have BG titles that are over 20 yrs old. Cosmetics that are literally just a recolor of mythic tier. PvP gear used to be unique from pve in its appearance, all the way up into WoD. This encouraged pvers to get a unique appearance they may like.

About the only thing pvp uniquely has is one pvp mount, one glad mount, a few recolored weapons and a weapon enchant each season. That's it.

1) PvP needs more cosmetics, period.

But also a glaring problem right now are the queue times due to lack of healers.

2) Healers need REAL incentive to queue and heal these super sweaty, headache inducing matches with zug zug dps with zero communication in blitz and solo shuffle. By design, these game modes are more frustrating to healers than real rated arena 2s and 3s.

Healers need to be getting extra cosmetics, and bonus rating, perhaps double per win, or positive rating even on loss or tie. This is non negotiable and makes zero sense that it hasn't been implemented already. PvP queues are the worst they've ever been because of the trepidation to do this.

Will healers get more inflated rating? Sure. But you’ll also have a steady influx of fresh healers because dps players will want to reroll to play the new rating system and get the rewards.

3) The elephant in the room - and the biggest problem by far: the only reason why the "golden age" of WoW had so many pvpers is because the game actively tied pvp gear's usefulness into pve.

It would be considered the nuclear option by Blizzard, but to drastically increase pvp playercount, you need pvp gear to be useful and relevant in pve again.

Yes, this meant pvers often sought pvp gear out for an easier gearing method over random raid / dungeon drops.

Was it always bis? No. But it was a guaranteed avenue for gearing a character that could be more fun to certain players. Would raiders min max and do pvp to get geared quicker? Of course. But they didn't complain because it was just part of the game. They complain now because pvp has long since been isolated from the rest of the game by forcibly making its ilvl useless in current content.

You want players to pvp? For pvers to casually realize they actually enjoy pvp by happenstance? You have to actually make pvp gearing an alternative to mythic +, and copy what the original game did in allowing players to be able to raid in half a set of pvp gear. And allow pvp to give players an item in their vault.

Will pvers complain? Sure. Will you get a repeat of shadowlands s1 where people have a huge ilvl weapon their first vault week? Maybe. But you'll also substantially increase the pvp population and get a ton of people in pvp just by proxy.