I think we have to accept the fact that most players prefer 3rd person play. I can see why that is, e.g. the limited overview is uncomfortable...
Unfortunately I dislike playing 3rd person and prefer the 1stP immersion and tension, but in 1st person vs 3rd person I'd be in a severe disadvantage. So I need to play 1stP-only servers which indeed are not crowded often.
We can only try to convince people that 1stP could be interesting alternative for them. Eg. dslyxci made a good video about 1st vs. 3rd.