LauQ, the thing is that most people are looking for an instant PVP server, which means, no x30-x100, where lvl 80 may take an hour or more. People are not looking for long farm (not even an hour of continuous farming) whatever it is for.
Personally, I do not like how custom armors look. About unbalance... Well, I agree that custom armors can be balanced. All you need is not to make big changes in stats.
Unexpectedly, I have seen only 1 L2OFF x5000 (Fury of roxy network, that joined DEX network later.). It was Interlude and updated to Hellbound later. It was a really good server of its kind with 2k daily +/-. ;)
Some of its features...
No custom armors/weapons ...
3rd class quest was done normally (Quest items, that required Ketra or Varka, HS and Shrine farm where at the shop)
Retail buff duration.
No NPC buffers. There were scrolls, that were giving you some pp/ee/se buffs by double-clicking on them. No 3rd class buffs, d/s, cat/pony buff and some more 2nd class buffs like Clarity.
Weapon SAs required SC leveling.