There isn't a fake player count. Something to remember is there's a lot of money making methods outside the wilderness. Just because we have 90 online and only 30 in the wilderness doesn't mean the other 60 players aren't doing other activities around the game. Gambling, staking, trading, socializing, PVM, etc. I'm sorry you had a poor experience but hopefully, once things are ironed out a bit more and we're in our groove, you'll try it again and have a better experience.
Big update on it's way!