i think it'd be fine if general came back, the game is more subdued, at least, in terms of the sheer number of people playing. i do get that it's pretty rowdy at times but rowdiness will find an outlet, and like queen said, most people are all in one place anyways [guilty as charged lol] so i think it'd be fine either way.
the thing is, i have a feeling if more of the playerbase used the forums, we'd have a lot of group recruiters plugging for it to come back. maybe not, tho. i do see a lot of people these days putting out adverts on the forums and leaving up a discord link which is a lot easier than making people say, tinyurl to join a group they might not stick around for. it's kind of always been a bit of hassle to advertise on this game, general or not, because if you're going for a professional [map/discord/site/whatever] thing, you can't put in links and either have to trust people's ability to copy a link or tinyurl it.
it's not that much work, but it can be a deterrent, at least imo.
could swing either way. i'm usually distracted enough as i play that i don't mind either way if the green comes back or not.