The servers problem is more related to retention rather than spamming sockets imo. The population is in a slow decline, and thats not a problem for just this server, the conquer player base is getting smaller by the day.
Personally, i think giving people an option to interact less with others with other players only accelerates the above problem especially when trying to 2 soc items is just as if not more tedious. Say you have max gear, what then? theres nothing beyond that point besides logging in and killing waters for an hour in CW, if that's your thing that is. I'd rather waste my stamina both in game and IRL spamming more sockets, it's much more enjoyable beleive me.