@Spiritedmushroom
For a simple reason, older Battlefields had a server finder so you could see how many people were on a server and join it. BF2042 has matchmaking which causes the game to die out faster (Call of Duty games are proof of this), by 3 years old 70% of the modes are dead because players change the game and MM can't find enough players at the same time as you search for a match.
Until the server finder comes back, that's the way it's going to be, all companies are going for cash and not consumer welfare (doesn't matter if it's a corporation writing a game or designing cars - the market is going that way and that's it).
Still check you don't happen to have NAT closed or a firewall or something else, read post #11 at this link, maybe it will help.
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues/BF2042-Matches-Not-Launching-Since-12-26-2023/m-p/13356559#M57084
GL