Not everyone lives in Destiny world, most people haven't even reached the Dreaming City yet I would wager. I've only leveled my Hunter to 500 and completed the campaign, now I'm working on my Titan and then my Warlock. Even though I have completed the campaign with my Hunter I haven't stepped one foot in the dreaming city yet, won't until all 3 of my characters have leveled to 500 and completed the campaign, I am taking my time with this expansion.

I havent had this issue. Sometimes im alone in patrol space but that happens everywhere, and always has. They could matchmake us into instances, but I think that would be a wildly different experience that what we have, and Im not sure I even want that. If Im really trying for public event completions, im taking 2 friends with me. I dont want public events to be tuned for 5+ players thanks

Most of the people that I know aren’t even there yet.

More likely people just haven’t got to it yet. Public events start at 530, I’ve done a fair bit of grinding and I top out now at 519. I have 8 friends who have forsaken and really like it, 3 of them have made it to the dreaming city so far and probably only me and one other have had a real crack at PE’s and the blind well, multiply that across the player base and you can see how it drops off so easy. Also I bet if you check back after tonight when the reset drops, the hardcore folks will be back out in force for those milestones and bounties along with folks who are there for the first time. It was labelled as an endgame space, not a basic patrol area.