Yea, I feel Savage 1 really wanted to be almost "Warcraft/AoE, but your friends are the units," which is why it includes some rather dull mechanics. I think Savage 2 got rid of some of the tedium, but it also introduced more specialization which made it even harder to get a game going, as you can't even really play the game with less than ~8 people in a server (and the game really only gets fun with many, many more players).
Hitting critical mass was definitely the weakness for Savage.
Natural Selection worked much better in that regard. About 6v6 was the sweet spot, but it worked alright on lower player counts and was absolute fun chaos at higher counts. It was a fixture at our LANs for many years!
One the best parts of these games though is that new players are always incentivized to contribute and aren't a net drag (in casual play). Sure you might be terrible, but your death still meant less damage on your teammates, and there was always something helpful to do whether it was helping build or repair things or scouting and harassing the enemy.
