As others have mentioned, the list system was about as successful as it could be. It prevented one guild from monopolizing the camps to a significant extent, and everything that made them tedious and awful was also the reason they worked. If you showed up to a camp and there were 15 people on list, that didn't mean you had to wait for 15 drops, you just had to get on the list and wait as people inevitably dropped off early.
Was it miserable? Yes. But I still got two guises and two rubi bps that I almost certainly wouldn't have without /list existing. And it still felt significant and like a real accomplishment. Upping the drop rates or making afk checks less frequent would just be making it a guaranteed loot giveaway, and the reward would feel cheap. Accomplishments not feeling cheap and easy is a fundamental appeal of classic EQ.
I think the notion that they're unhealthy is kind of misguided. Playing this game at all is unhealthy. There's not much difference between lacking the discipline to not sit on the manastone list for 24hrs straight and lacking the discipline to not just play the game in any other way for 24hrs straight. People sacrifice their health to play this game and a myriad of other games all the time, /list or not.
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