To add my own two cents - Im pleased with what's happened, apart from Gallia, which imo should be rearanged a bit. It doesn't make sense for core house systems to be separated in two distinct halfs like this.
Tightening the routes was imo a good call. The reason why it doesn't seem to increase interaction lies with the player list showing which system exactly players are, so they can just dock and wait you out. F.E. if there's a BPA ship in New London, I won't go to dublin JH unless I know where exactly the ship is. If it only showed regions, I'll have to risk it, because knowing he's somewhere in Bretonia doesn't help me nearly as much as knowing he's in NL directly.