I suggest you to give it a try. This server is not so bad, imho. Yeah a lot of pk, but lot of exp zone too. P2W can't be stopped, but you can use it at your advantage, as I do with my fellows, cause ppl who shop a lot will spend Adena with no brain and you can get reach spending 0 real money (full top A gear before lvl 61 thx to credit card ppl) . If you are not in hurry to do mass hardcore pvp and if you have good group of friends you will have a lot of fun, as we having :). L2 it's a game of patience, there's always time to create alliance and get castle, hero, etc..
This is a private server, ppl go and come continuosly so things can always change :)
Think about enjoying the game in all his apsects, do all you can to help your group to raise up easly: crafter, spoiler, buffer and recharger, etc...
If you just want fast and hard pvp and easy gear so you might try high rate pvp servers.
Personally I think the Interlude server won't die with the "release" of Gracia server, cause, like GM already answered to me in another thread, Interlude's public is different from Gracia ppl.