All I want is humans in my games (South Africa)
Im in South Africa and I have yet to have a match with just humans in the lobby. In fact 90% of my games are around 8 humans each side and the rest are bots.
This matchmaking method probably works great in places where there are 100k+ players but here in SA that is not the case.
If you do not want to make persistent servers then make a mode where you do not get to choose the map but you are at least gauranteed at least 32 players with no bots. I do not care if the wait time is longer, what i do care about is the quality of the games i get. Or just take all the players from the previous match and put them into the next one and just jumble them around a bit. You could even add a deathmatch queue where people play in a deathmatch game while they wait for a full lobby (similar to overwatch).
You have an amazing game here (despite the silly ttk) and it is really sad that some people around the world can't enjoy it because you designed matchmaking around larger playerbase regions.
If it is because of skill based matchmaking then once again let people make that choice so that people in smaller regions can just enjoy a game full of humans.