Not sure how you are arriving at your first question. No, we do not want fewer players in the Ettenmoors. Our goals are to provide a wider number of objectives that can be undertaken by smaller groups to drive the battles.
Taking Lug, TR, TA, the Grimwood, and Isendeep used to require raids to effectively capture. This has not been the case for a pretty long time. We're not planning on removing the ability to create raids, nor are we going to actively de-incentivize raids. What we want to do is make smaller groups as appealing by providing better impetus for smaller fights. Further, we want to change up the barrier to entry and efficacy to be accessible to those first stepping into the Ettenmoors without requiring an additional grind on either side of the battle.
For all of this to work, we need to properly incentivize both sides of the battle.