Mods. I know that’s not really helpful, but it really is how many of us continue to enjoy it. That said, there are still things you can do to spice up your gameplay on vanilla. The biggest one is this- try a different playstyle. Archery is incredibly effective, so try making a character who absolutely refuses to use one because his whole family was slaughtered by a rogue sentient bow that laughed at him while it did it. Recruit different companions and try to keep them alive in different situations. Be an absolutely evil sonofabitch and kill everyone the game allows you to. Try Oblivion, for a similar, but distinctly different (and in my opinion, slightly superior, despite Skyrim’s many advantages) experience. Or, most simply, stop trying to get blood from a stone, and put the game down until the itch actually returns, not until you feel like it should’ve. Best of luck to you.

There is actually an advantage to being part of a larger instance if you want to browse everything, actually. An instance is federated with another when a user from Instance A subscribes to a community from Instance B. The more users in an instance, the more people to subscribe to other instances, federating that instance with more instances for all users.