Also I've been in underpopulated realms that were plenty active. Morek was far from silent when I was there and they still have just five nobles.
Morek was not plenty active. It had a short lived span of activity that died out rather quickly. I left the realm a little while back so I can't comment on it now but I'm betting it isn't really any better. If it was more active then I would have stayed longer. Main point being though, don't take a couple weeks as evidence that the small realm wasn't quiet. You joined at the peak of the tension with Arnor and instigated a decent amount of conversation through protests. It didn't take long for the Arnor situation to cool and then for the realm to return to very few messages. Should also note that the realm had 9 nobles when you were there and not 5.
