The server has been up and running for something like 6 or 7 years now, so it's unlikely to go away unless the Devs just get tired of supporting it. However, Velious is as far as they've said they'd take it, so there is unlikely to be any expansions past Velious released.
Low-level, the server is very much as you remember EQ. People group regularly (most need to). You get put on wait lists for groups (which can take hours to just get into one). There are "normal" progression zones where you'll find the highest population, but if you have a small group there are a lot of other zones that can be really good since they aren't heavily populated.
Around high 40s the game starts to change a lot, though, as you begin to enter the end-game, which is very saturated with players. This is the one area where stopping at Velious is going to just continue to get rough, as the amount of content up through Velious really isn't enough to satisfy the player-base at end-game. However, until you get there, I think you'll find the game is very reminiscent of EQ back in 1999.
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