How would a server browser help in that case?

Matchmaking puts people into a limited number of servers. Yeah, you get the problem of realizing that those folk have been playing Tribes 2 for over twenty years at this point but you also have people to play with. Versus twelve servers with 2 players and a bunch of bots (if the game has them) each.

I always would rather both options. But from a game health standpoint… hoppers tend to have clear advantages at most player counts.