The Estonian forums are unfortunately (almost) completely inactive apart from the NT forums. We ourselves call us “lone tinkerers (omaette nokitseja)” so that’s why I guess. :)
I have a strong feeling that there's a high probability you already know that we Finns also share the same mentality in general, so I think I know exactly what you mean... And our forums have gone almost dead nowadays in Finland as well, after most of the discussion has (apparently and) very unfortunately moved to discord.
However, I could try to make a thread there on HG teams and ask around for anyone interested for the HGL if you would like. Maybe such an active approach would give some potential HG managers some motivation.
I've had that same thought earlier in terms of active forum approach (and if my memory serves me, actually suggested that earlier on Homegrown Teams II thread I think), as I was thinking how to raise more awareness and interest on HG style of play/mentality. So basically I think that's a very good idea, and you're definitely welcome to do so if you want to make the effort.
Actually, all us HGL managers, especially us who play in countries where the first official language isn't English, would be very welcome to do that, as I suspect that would raise more interest towards HGL, and some players might not even be aware of HGL due to not being able to read English on a sufficient level. (Of course, if such manager would then join and if I couldn't write on their language, they would be then dependent on this referring/tutoring HGL manager to explain rules and practices to them, which is of course an added layer of challenge - but I was just throwing an idea out, that might help creating more awareness/interest).
It's just that currently we have somewhat limited capability to expand (due to extreme increase in manual work if amount of teams would increase significantly), but ground work/raising interest levels/awareness levels never produces a 100% return in terms of creating future HGL participants, so I think it's safe to do that kind of ground work (in terms of raising awareness levels and asking of potential interest levels on each countries forums) to see if there's even bigger interest that hasn't yet come into light.
One example could be manager of Home-Grown team Hårdboll, Spela, who is a very long term HG manager, and still apparently just recently found out about our Official HGL Threads. So if not even all HG managers know of HGL, there must be some potential with this active forum approach. :)
However, this is the kind of league that demands certain level of commitment, and takes some amount of work even from a regular manager (especially before the season setup, and organizing playoff matches
each week), so it's not ever going to be suitable for just about anyone who just simply wants to set up everything once and then forget it. And commitment and willingness to stick with rules/practices is also necessary in order to keep HGL fair and fun to play for all, and "not make it wrong kind of play field" as I've wrote before.
The draft week tends to be one of these that I anticipate the most as well, always refreshing the roster page just to see if I got my preferred picks. And I am sure that you can rebuild your team around the couple of nice-looking young guns in your roster after your top players start aging.
I hope you're right, but to be honest with you, I don't think my economy would take it well if I'd be relegated (I'm currently going for 100 own draftees in a team!), so I've definitely had to prioritize surviving in the league and not getting the best draft picks possible, as I can't afford to be relegated... And as I'm playing on second highest level, being able to draft on positions 6-12 doesn't give you many "jewels" in average, I'm afraid. I would've needed 2-4 of those jewels already 3-5 seasons ago... :/