I have posted in dead regions and people started buying my things. A few others have done this as well that I talked to and people will start buying most of the regions I think are dead is because of travel time to market hubs.
So if you post items (good price) people will buy and start to live in those areas. Sometimes it takes time I had a hub that started very low like a few billion a month that started to climb to several billion a month took several months but it finally started to become a big hub.
Post items for sale and readjust each month something not selling then take it off the sell list put something else on.
T2 is always good to just stock or things people need mining/drones/pve gear/t2 mods etc.