I took the plummet, in spite of my apprehensions, but I do not have any friends so it doesn't matter!
I checked yesterday, there were 50 pilots online, which seems like more than the old days before the server went dark.
By the way, because of my wimpy internet connection here at the marina (Verizon Wireless) a friend downloaded the game and saved it to a disk for me. He said his computer security went nuts with all the mallware he picked up and promptly scrubbed his computer (which was brand new).